1. Mina Yamanaka
English 12
Comparison of Two Literatures
The poem“How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” by Nellie Wong and the
vignette “My Name” from the fictional novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra
Cisneros are to be compared to find similarities and differences.
The poem “How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” is about a Chinese-American
girl who is going togo to Chinese school and she only has Western name, Nellie. For the
teacher is not used to western name and pronounces Nellie in a weird way, the teacher
says that she will call her Nah Lei which means Where or Which place. After school Nah
Lei talks about it to her parents and say that they shall give her a Chinese name: Lay Oy.
It means Beautiful Love instead of Where or Which place and the girl giggles from the
pleasure. Lai Oy could also mean lost pocket depending on the heart of the conversation.
The poem ends with the meaningful sentence, which implies that she is not aware of the
internal conflict that will occur in the future, at that moment. The vignette “My Name”is
about Esperanza revealing her name for the first time in the novel. She explains her
name as negative way saying the opposite of what her name actually means, and she
gives some explanation about her great-grand mother who initially was a strong woman
like a hose but her forced marriage kept her beside the window for the rest of her life.
The name was inherited from her and Esperanza complains about her name and she
even says that she wants to baptize herself under a new name.
The similarity between Nellie and Esperanza is that they both have names that
are different from their own nationalities and struggling to be in a bicultural situation.
Tough Nellie has Chinese parents, she has been raised in an American culture and she

2. Mina Yamanaka
English 12
has been brought up as American, so she ishaving hard time in Chinese school. Similar
circumstance is going on for Esperanza; although she is Mexican-American, she was
given a Spanish name.Also, both of them have names that have meanings to them. Nah
Leimeans Where or Which place, Lay Oymeans Beautiful Love, and Esperanza means
hope in Spanish. These meanings are significant to both girls because Nellie felt
awkward with the meaning of Nah Leiand Esperanza notices the gap between what her
name means and the reality. Another similarity is that both of them do not like the idea
that their names are hard to be pronounced correctly. When teacher calls Nellie at the
first time, the teacher stresses the l’s like a whinnying horse. At school, people say
Esperanza is funny because it is like the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof
of your mouth.
The differences are that while Esperanza craves for a new name and she does
not have it yet, Nellie gets her new name as soon as she tells her parents about the story
at school and she gets it without asking for it. For Nellie gets her new name promptly,
she does not have to be made fun about her name by the schoolmates, however,
Esperanza has been distressed about her name for quite a time. Nellie seems quite
content with all of her names and she is positive all the way through while Esperanza
dislikes her name very much and takes it negatively.
The purpose of the works is that for a name represents a person, people try to
seek their identity in their names and both Esperanza and Nellie are not comfortable with
their names in certain circumstances, they struggle to find their identities in their names.