The document compares and contrasts two works - "My Name" by Sandra Cisneros and "How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name" by Nellie Wong. Both works discuss girls with non-English names from multicultural backgrounds struggling to find their identities. In "My Name", the narrator Esperanza dislikes her Spanish name and its negative associations. In contrast, the narrator of "How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name", Nellie Wong, is generally positive about having both an English and Chinese name that changes based on context. While the girls face different attitudes towards their names, both pieces illustrate the challenges of navigating multiple cultures.

1. Heejoo Jung
English 12 Per. 7
Ms. Hala
Comparison writing
One of the vignettes of The House on Mango Street, ‘My Name’ by Sandra Cisneros
talks about how a Spanish-American girl lives and feels with her Spanish name. The poem,
‘How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name’ by Nellie Wong talks how a Chinese-American girl got her
Chinese name. As both of them are talking about multi-cultured kids’ life, there are both
similarities and differences between them.
The narrator of ‘My Name’ is a Spanish-American who has Spanish name and two
different cultures. As she is living in the America, having Spanish name, she is struggling to find
her own identity. Her name has negative meaning such as sadness. At the school people say her
name funny. For the reasons, she hates her name, Esperanza, and wants a new name. Her sister,
whose name is Magdalena, which is the uglier than the narrator’s name, has nickname at home,
while the narrator doesn’t and she has to be Esperanza every time. Since she talks about her
name that she doesn’t like, the tone of ‘My Name’ is negative over the piece. This piece starts
with adult voice when she is explaining about her name and the history of the name, and then it
ends in child voice with her wishing to have new name like Zeze the X (page 11). In this vignette,
some imagery is used to show and emphasize how Esperanza doesn’t like her name.
The narrator of ‘How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name’ is a Chinese-American who has also
non-English name, which is Chinese one and Lai Oy, and also has two different cultures. Since
her real name, which is Nellie, doesn’t exist in Chinese (line 6), so her name was called funny by
her Chinese teacher, as Esperanza is called funny at school. She has been once Nah Lei, which
means where or which place, but she doesn’t seem she cares about that. Unlike the narrator of
‘My Name’, at first, she doesn’t get lost between the two cultures. While Esperanza has negative

2. Heejoo Jung
English 12 Per. 7
Ms. Hala
meaning, Lai Oy means beautiful love. Even though Lai Oy also means lost pocket depending on
the point of speaking (line 28-29), she is not negative about that. She is positive about the fact
that her name keeps changing from Nellie to Lai Oy depending on where she is. Since Nellie
doesn’t hate to have two cultures, the tone over this piece, ‘How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name’
is positive until Nellie states that she gets lost later. The voices of both adult and child are used in
this piece like ‘My Name’. Child voice is used when she talks how she got the Chinese name and
adult voice is used when she says that she gets lost later. The significant stylistic devices are
repetition and irony. Nellie’s Chinese name, Lai Oy is repeating, emphasizing her name, and the
name’s two opposite meanings are ironic.
Although the two narrators, who are Esperanza and Nellie Wong, have to live within two
cultures, they seem they stay strong in this situation. The two pieces emphasize two different
attitudes and opinions on the narrators’ names, using literary devices such as imagery and
repetition. Though Esperanza doesn’t like her name more than Nellie Wong, both pieces are
showing how the girls are struggling to find their own identities.