a short description of the work

1. House on Mango Street
By Sandra Cisneros

2. GOALS
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
● Use details to make inferences about the characters
and their lives;
● Understand the difference between prose and poetry;
● Identify and explain the conflicts
● Identify literary terms, such as simile and
personification, and explain how they add to the
meaning of the work;
● Identify and explain the themes of the work
● Understand why we read literature that may makes us
feel sad and uncomfortable

3. Themes to look for:
Poverty
Ownership
Family struggles
Privacy and space
Dreams and hopes of a better life
Shame and embarrassment
Bigotry/judgement vs. acceptance/tolerance
Dangers and setbacks
Loss of innocence/coming of age

4. Hairs
1. What is this vignette about? Answer this
without mentioning “hair” and without talking
to your group. Answer in your notes. This
should be the theme--the central idea of a
text.
2. Find a simile. Why use this simile? What
does it show about the character or about
Esperanza?
3. Which character gets the longest sentence?

5. Boys and Girls
1. What do you learn about the narrator’s
culture from the way the children are thought
of and the way the children behave?
2. What does this vignette reveal about the
relationship between males and females?
3. Explain the metaphor at the end: “Until then,
I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an
anchor.”
○ What is the anchor?

6. My Name
1. How does Esperanza feel about her name
and why?
1. How do you feel about your own name?
Spend a few minutes talking about your own
name. If you know how you got your name,
you can share that information.

7. Cathy Queen of Cats
1. Describe Cathy?
2. What do you learn about Alicia? Why do you
think Alicia stopped being friendly with
Cathy?
3. What do you learn about Esperanza from the
way she accepts the stories from Cathy?
*Bigot: someone who,as a result of their
prejudice, treats others with fear, contempt,
hatred, and intolerance.

8. Our Good Day
1. Who are Rachel and Lucy?
2. What choice does Esperanza make in this
vignette? What does this reveal about her
character?
3. Find an example of imagery in the chapter

9. Notice how details reveal character and
theme
1. List some of the details about the junk store in “Gil’s
Furniture Bought and Sold”.
2. What do we learn about the neighborhood from these
details?
The details show that it is run down, poor, drained.
3. What do we learn about Esperanza from this vignette?
The details show that she can’t have what she
wants; also, not everything she wants is available to her.
4. What themes emerge in this vignette?
Poverty; ownership; dreams and hopes

10. What do the details show about
character(s) and/or theme?
1. Meme in“Meme Ortiz”:
The details show that...
1. Louie’s cousin “Louie, his Cousin &.His Other Cousin..”
The details show that...
1. Marin in “Marin”:
The details show that...
1. The neighborhood “Those who Don’t”
The details show that…
1. The Vargas children in “There was an Old Woman…”
The details show that...

11. What do the details show about
character(s) and theme?
1. First review the vignette by go overing the details. Who
is the vignette about and what happens?
2. Discuss what the details show about character and/or
theme. For each vignette, complete the sentence: The
details show that...
● “Alicia who sees Mice”
● “Darius and the Clouds”
● “And Some More”
● “The Family of Little Feet”
● “A Rice Sandwich”
● “Chanclas”

12. What do the details show about
character(s) and theme?
1. First review the vignette by go overing the details. Who
is it about and what happens?
2. Discuss what the details show about the character(s)
and theme. Look for contrasts. For each vignette, complete
the sentence: The details show that...
● “Hips”
● “The First Job”
● “Papa who Wakes up Tired in the Dark”
● “Born Bad”
● “Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water”
● “Geraldo No Last Name”
● “Edna’s Ruthie”

13. “The Monkey Garden”
1. This story takes place in a garden. Could this be an
allusion to another famous garden?
2. What happens to the garden as time goes on (plot)?
3. What larger idea could this be about (theme)?
4. “What does Esperanza mean when she says. “who was
it that said I was getting too old to play the games?” (96)

14. “The Monkey Garden”
5. Esperanza becomes angry with Tito and the boys. Why
?(Think about her own experiences and Sally’s.)
6. Esperanza is embarrassed and upset. She “wanted to be
dead.” Why? What part of her died that day?
7. What could the shoes that no longer fit symbolize? Think
back to “Chanclas.”
8. Go back to the beginning of the vignette and find words
that foreshadow the loss of innocence that occurs in the
garden.

15. Review these vignettes in groups
1. “Linoleum Roses”
○ What is Sally’s fate?
○ What does the title symbolize?
1. “The Three Sisters”
○ What do the three sisters advise Esperanza to do?
○ How is life “a circle”?
2. “Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps”
○ What is Esperanza’s fate?
○ Who will help the people on Mango Street?
3. “A House of My Own”
○ What kind of house does Esperanza wish for?
4. “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”’
○ Where will Esperanza go? How? Why?

16. Writing Style
Literary Terms: genre, theme, conflict,
allusion, symbol, fragment, figurative
language, point of view, repetition

17. Themes
Poverty
Ownership
Family struggles
Privacy and space
Dreams and hopes of a better life
Shame and embarrassment
Bigotry/judgement vs. acceptance/tolerance
Dangers and setbacks
Loss of innocence/coming of age

18. Genre
Prose Poetry

19. Fragments
“And broke both arms.” (22)
“And fathers. (32)
1. What is a fragment?
2. Why would the author purposefully use a fragment?
3. What is a vignette and why do you think Cisneros uses
them instead of longer chapters?

20. Symbol
Object
1. Esperanza’s House
2. The music box
3. Brown shoes
4. Four skinny trees
5. The monkey garden
Object represents…
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?

21. Allusions
Cinderella (40)
Madame Butterfly (91)
Garden of Eden (94)
Rip Van Winkle (95)
Macbeth by Shakespeare (103)

22. Homework for Friday 9/13
Go through the next four slides and answer the
questions for homework. Remember to use
your blue literary terms handout if you are not
sure what one of the terms means.

23. Point of View
1. From what point of view is the story written? First,
second or third?
“In English my name means hope” (10).
“I read it in a book” (35).
2. Describe the narrator’s voice and find quotations from
the text to support your point.
Esperanza appears youthful and childlike. She wants to
play with the boys rather than flirt with them. She says, “I wanted to run,
too, up and down through the monkey garden fast as the boys, not like
Sally who screamed if she got her stockings muddy” (96).

24. Figurative Language
3. Find an example of a simile.
Ex. “There were big green apples hard as knees.” (95)
4. Find an example of personification.
Ex. “Dead cars appeared overnight like mushrooms.” (95)
5. Choose one of these examples and explain how the
figurative language used adds to the development of
character or theme?
Ex. The description of cars as “dead “foreshadows the death of
innocence that occurs in the garden.

25. Repetition
6. Find an example of repetition and explain how it adds
meaning to the vignette:
“I hold and hold and hold him” (57). The repetition emphasizes
Esperanza’s love and sympathy for her father.
“All you wanted, Sally, was to love and to love and to love and to
love, and no one could call it crazy” (83). The repetition of Sally’s desire
“to love” emphasizes her loneliness.

26. Conflict
Examples of External
Conflicts:
1. Esperanza vs. Tito and the boys
2.
3.
Examples of
Internal Conflicts:
1. Esperanza vs. her own shame
2.
2

27. Done!
Please be sure your answers are legible and
neat. Bring them to class on Friday.