House on Mango Street

By Sandra Cisneros

GOALS

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

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• 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

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

Hairs

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• 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.
• Find a simile. Why use this simile? What does it show about the character or about Esperanza?
• Which character gets the longest sentence?

Boys and Girls

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

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My Name

• How does Esperanza feel about her name and why?

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• 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.

Cathy Queen of Cats

• Describe Cathy?
• What do you learn about Alicia? Why do you think Alicia stopped being friendly with Cathy?
• What do you learn about Esperanza from the way she accepts the stories from Cathy?

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*Bigot: someone who,as a result of their prejudice, treats others with fear, contempt, hatred, and intolerance.

Our Good Day

• Who are Rachel and Lucy?
• What choice does Esperanza make in this vignette? What does this reveal about her character?
• Find an example of imagery in the chapter

Notice how details reveal character and theme

• List some of the details about the junk store in “Gil’s Furniture Bought and Sold”.

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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.

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4. What themes emerge in this vignette?

Poverty; ownership; dreams and hopes

What do the details show about character(s) and/or theme?

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• Meme in“Meme Ortiz”:

The details show that...

• Louie’s cousin “Louie, his Cousin &.His Other Cousin..”

The details show that...

• Marin in “Marin”:

The details show that...

• The neighborhood “Those who Don’t”

The details show that…

• The Vargas children in “There was an Old Woman…”

The details show that...

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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?

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2. Discuss what the details show about character and/or theme. For each vignette, complete the sentence: The details show that...

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• “Alicia who sees Mice”
• “Darius and the Clouds”
• “And Some More”
• “The Family of Little Feet”
• “A Rice Sandwich”
• “Chanclas”

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?

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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...

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• “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”

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“The Monkey Garden”

1. This story takes place in a garden. Could this be an allusion to another famous garden?

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2. What happens to the garden as time goes on (plot)?

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3. What larger idea could this be about (theme)?

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4. “What does Esperanza mean when she says. “who was it that said I was getting too old to play the games?” (96)

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“The Monkey Garden”

5. Esperanza becomes angry with Tito and the boys. Why ?(Think about her own experiences and Sally’s.)

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6. Esperanza is embarrassed and upset. She “wanted to be dead.” Why? What part of her died that day?

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7. What could the shoes that no longer fit symbolize? Think back to “Chanclas.”

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8. Go back to the beginning of the vignette and find words that foreshadow the loss of innocence that occurs in the garden.

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Review these vignettes in groups

1. “Linoleum Roses”

• What is Sally’s fate?
• What does the title symbolize?
• “The Three Sisters”
• What do the three sisters advise Esperanza to do?
• How is life “a circle”?
• “Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps”
• What is Esperanza’s fate?
• Who will help the people on Mango Street?
• “A House of My Own”
• What kind of house does Esperanza wish for?
• “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”’
• Where will Esperanza go? How? Why?
• Is the ending sad or uplifting? Why?

Writing Style

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

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

Genre

Prose

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Poetry

Fragments

“And broke both arms.” (22)

“And fathers. (32)

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• What is a fragment?
• Why would the author purposefully use a fragment?
• What is a vignette and why do you think Cisneros uses them instead of longer chapters?

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Symbol

Object

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• Esperanza’s House
• The music box
• Brown shoes
• Four skinny trees
• The monkey garden

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Object represents…

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• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?
• ?

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Allusions

Cinderella (40)

Madame Butterfly (91)

Garden of Eden (94)

Rip Van Winkle (95)

Macbeth by Shakespeare (103)

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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.

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).

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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).

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Figurative Language

3. Find an example of a simile.

Ex. “There were big green apples hard as knees.” (95)

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4. Find an example of personification.

Ex. “Dead cars appeared overnight like mushrooms.” (95)

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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.

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.

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“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.

Conflict

Examples of External Conflicts:

1. Esperanza vs. Tito and the boys

2.

3.

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Examples of

Internal Conflicts:

1. Esperanza vs. her own shame

2.

2

Done!

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