The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
Introduction
1. Who are you? From where does our sense of identity come? How does the
environment shape our identity? What identities, if any, are permanent and
which do we have the power to change? What roles do neighborhood and
community play in shaping who we become?
2. What is the personal significance of your given name (first, middle, last)? Does
your name mean different things to you, your family, and your friends? What
are your nicknames? What do your nicknames mean to you and those who call
you those names?
Section One: Self-Definition and Identity
After reading “The House on Mango Street”, please respond to one of the following
journal entries:
 Write about a favorite house where you live or once lived.
 Describe your dream house.
 Write about a time when your family was denied housing because of their race,
religion, or beliefs.
After reading “Hairs”, “Boys and Girls”, and “My Name”,please respond to one of the
following journal entries:
 Do you like or dislike your hair? Why?
 Think about the possibility of being treated unfairly because of the texture of
your hair. What human right has been violated?
 At what age was it taboo to be seen talking with a member of the opposite sex?
 Who was your best friend before the sixth grade? What was his/her age? Are
you still friends with this person today?
 Have you ever been prohibited from being friends with someone from another
ethnic group? How would you feel if you were not allowed to talk or play with a
person of another race or religion?
 What does your name mean? Whose name did you inherit? Do you like your
name? If you were to change your name who would you become and why?
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Section Two: Friendship, Neighborhood, Home
After reading “Cathy Queen of Cats”, “Our Good Day”, “Laughter”, “Gil’s Furniture
Bought and Sold”, “Meme Ortiz”, and “Louie, His Cousin and His Other Cousin”,
please respond to one of the following journal entries:
 Were you ever the survivor of an act of racism or discrimination? How did the
experience make you feel? How did you respond? Has your attitude or feelings
changed since?
 How did you or would you greet new neighbors when you were about age ten?
 Was your attitude similar to Cathy’s or Esperanza’s attitude towards new kids?
 Were you quick-tempered or sassy like Rachel? Give examples.
 Do you know someone whose laughter is so funny that it makes you laugh when
you think of the person? Describe the laugh and the person. Describe your
laughter and how it sounds.
 What precious item did you find in a junk store or a thrift shop? Describe it.
 Did you or do you have a nickname? What is it? Who gave it to you? Why? Do
you like or dislike the name?
 Which two of Louie’s cousins are most intriguing? Why?
Section Three: Freedom and Entrapment
After reading “Marin”, “Those Who Don’t”, “There was an Old Woman …”, “Alicia
Who Sees Mice”, “Darius and the Clouds”, and “And Some More”, please respond to
one of the following journal entries:
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Describe the people in your current or previous neighborhood who were
the most feared by outsiders.
If Esperanza were describing your neighborhood, what is meant by her
comment, “All brown all around, we are safe”?
How did Esperanza describe what happened when she or her neighbors
drove into the neighborhood of another ethnic group? What similar
experiences have you had?
What do you feel about Alicia’s inheritance and how would you handle
such an inheritance?
Write about kids in your neighborhood that remind you of Rosa’s children.
Why do you feel that Darius’s cloud comment is wise?
What is Darius’s view of God or a higher power?
What is your view of a higher power?
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Section Four: Growth and Maturity, Sexuality
After reading “The Family of Little Feet”, “A Rice Sandwich”, “Chanclas”, “Hips”, and
“The First Job”, please respond to one of the following journal entries:
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Write about a time you were so frightened by someone that you ran away
from the situation. How were your Human Rights violated by this
incident?
When during your childhood did you need to feel special? How old were
you? What were the circumstances?
What statement do your shoes make about you?
Write about a time when your shoes and clothing made you feel
uncomfortable.
What was the one positive thing that you learned from your first job?
Section Five: Gender Roles and Expectations
After reading “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”, “Born Bad”, “Elenita, Cards,
Palm, Water”, “Geraldo No Last Name”, “Edna’s Ruthie”, “The Earl of Tennessee”,
and “Sire”, please respond to one of the following journal entries:
 Esperanza’s innocence is challenged by the death of a family member. An older
man again challenges her innocence. What was a similar challenge for you and
what Human Right was violated?
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“Born Bad” and “Elenita” are stories about superstitious beliefs. Describe
one of your superstitious beliefs.
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What myths have you heard about fortune tellers?
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Write about a mystery that reminds you of Earl or his wife.
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Write about someone who reminds you of Sire or Esperanza in this story.
Did you fear this person? How did you overcome your fears of kids who
remind you of Sire?
Section Six: Fitting In
After reading “Four Skinny Trees”, “No Speak English”, Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut
and Pineapple Juice on Tuesdays”, “Sally”, “Minerva Writes Poems”, and “Bums in the
Attic”, please respond to one of the following journal entries:
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
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If you were criticized for using your first language in public, how do you
think you would respond to the requester? Is this a violation of your
Human Rights?
Help Rafaela imagine a life outside the room where her husband holds her
captive. What is the life that you imagine for her?
What job do you imagine for Rafaela and how much would her job earn
weekly?
Write about a time when you felt your parents/guardians were being too
strict about your dress, free-time, or your movie-viewing. Were your
Human Rights violated?
Do you know anyone who has a stormy relationship with his/her or
partner? What advice would you offer regarding this couple?
Write about a person who is homeless or struggling to exist without
employment. How do you feel about this homeless person’s struggle?
Section Seven: Future Opportunities and Limitations
After reading “Beautiful and Cruel”, “A Smart Cookie”, “What Sally Said”, “The
Monkey Garden”, “Red Clowns”, and “Linoleum Roses”, please respond to one of the
following journal entries:
 What parts of your life would you most like to escape? Can you escape these
elements at some point in your life/ If so, how? If not, why not?
Section Eight: Finding One’s “Home”
After reading “The Three Sisters”, “Alicia and I Talking on Edna’s Steps”, “A House of
My Own”, and “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”, please respond to one or several of
the following journal entry/(ies):
 What inspires you most in life?
 What do you see the future holding for you ? What obstacles might stand in your
way? In what ways will you attempt to overcome them and achieve your future
desires?
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Mango Street Interpretive Essay
Directions: Choose ONE of the thesis statements/interpretive claims listed below then, in AT
LEAST THREE well-developed body paragraphs, prove that thesis! Start with an introduction
including the point of departure, background, and your interpretive claim/thesis, then work
on the evidence. I have listed some page references that might be useful to you. You MUST
use direct quotations (lines copied exactly from the book—include page numbers!) or
paraphrases (those lines put in your own words) from Mango Street to support your thesis—
Remember, a statement from the text should support every major statement you make about the
text and vice-versa. Please include a conclusion restating your main points and tying your
argument together. BE SURE TO CONSIDER HOW EACH OF THESE QUESTIONS
RELATES TO ESPERANZA’S SENSE OF IDENTITY. (Note: These thesis statements are
suggestions. Make whatever changes you need to fit what you want to write about! )
1. Esperanza’s negative view of herself slowly changes as she begins to focus on her larger
community and her place within it. Through this, Cisneros shows that knowing and
accepting where we have come from is an important part of growing up and determining
who we are.
Check pages: 3-5, 10-11, 29-30, 33-34, 46-48, 55-57, 58-61, 62-64, 86-87, 88-89, 103-105, 106107, 108, 109-110
2. Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive
relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change
things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’
shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.
Check pages: 10-11, 26-27, 29, 31-32, 58-61, 67-69, 74-75, 79-80, 81-83, 84-85, 88-89, 90-91, 9293, 101-102, 103-105, 106-107, 109-110
3. Both Alicia and Esperanza view education and writing as a way to a better life. Through
these and other characters, Cisneros suggests that education offers a kind of freedom.
Check pages: 31-32, 35, 60-61, 74-75, 90-91, 104-105, 106-107, 109-110
4. The circle is an important symbol in Mango Street, representing ways that many characters
are trapped in a cycle of violence and poverty as well as the ways that community can help
break that cycle.
Check pages: 26-27, 29-30, 31-32, 58-61, 65-66, 67-69, 76-78, 79-80, 81-83, 84-85, 88-89, 90-91,
92-93, 101-102, 106-107, 109-110
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Interpretive Essay—Notes
When you make an interpretation, you are trying to show someone else a meaning you see in a
piece of literature. Interpretation goes beyond the facts, like an inference or an author and me
question, but must be closely supported by the facts—that is, the information right there on the
page.
Point of departure: Identifies the title, author, and any necessary background information so
that the reader will have a context for your interpretation. The point of departure should build
up to your interpretive claim.
Interpretive claim/thesis: An interpretive essay basically tells the reader, “Here’s something
that might not seem obvious about the text, but I can prove it.” Interpretive statements do
more than state the obvious; you must go below the literal facts in order to come up with what
those facts might mean.
Good interpretive statements might deal with:
1. Motive: why do characters behave as they do?
2. Changes: who changes during the course of the novel?
3. Theme: what statement about life is the novel making?
4. Symbols: What things keep recurring in the novel that seem to stand for big issues like
life and death?
5. Judgement: Is the novel believable?
Evidence: This backs up your claim. Evidence, however well gathered, does not stand alone.
You can’t just copy down the lines and expect your reader to get it. You must take your reader
on a tour of sorts and point out exactly what you see in the quotation/text in order to support
your thesis. Every time you make a statement about a text, back it up with a line from the text
and vice versa!
Conclusion: This is where you tie your ideas together, recounting for the reader what you’ve
shown and why his/her perspective on the novel should be different now because of your
argument.
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
English 10
Building an Interpretive Essay—Mango Street
Directions: When you must write an essay in a short amount of time, it is often helpful to
make an outline to organize your thoughts and ideas. Once you have chosen the interpretive
claim you want to write about, use your notes to fill in the following outline.
Introduction:
Point of departure: ______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Interpretive claim/thesis: (Underline the specific ideas from your thesis that you will need to
“prove” in the body of your essay)
_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Body:
Evidence: Choose one or more quotations from the novel to support each thing that you
underlined then explain the quotes and how they support your thesis.
Quotation:______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Explanation: ____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Quotation:______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Explanation: ____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Quotation:______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Explanation: ____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Conclusion: (Jot down any concluding remarks to wrap up your essay):
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Student Sample #1: Interpretive Essay
We need role models because we need someone to look up to and talk to them so we could
know what we want to do later in life. There are all types of people that you can look up to in
life. They can point you in the wrong or right direction. In the novel The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Esperanza has a variety of female role models.
Her mother plays a big role in her life because that’s one of the main people she looks up to. “I
could’ve been somebody, you know?” Her mother says and sighs. (90). Esperanza doesn’t
want to be like her mother, but she looks up to her. There are many role models that surround
Esperanza: Some are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives.
Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and
Esperanza’s reaction to them, Cisneros shows not only the hardships women face but also
explores their power to overcome them.
One of Esperanza’s role models is Sally, who is trapped in an abusive relationship. She
doesn’t get to do the things she wants to do. It was like her husband had put her into a cage
and never unlocks it for her to play outside. Esperanza says, “Except he won’t let her talk on
the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window. And he doesn’t like her friends,
so nobody gets to visit her unless he’s working. She sits at home because she’s afraid to go
outside without his permission” (101-102). Sally would never disappoint her husband. She
would do anything to make him happy or just to make him love her.
Sally is getting treated like Rafaela, who is scared and sorry. Rafaela’s husband doesn’t let her
out because he thinks someone is going to be distracted by her beauty. She should think if he
really does love her, he would let her out and trust her. Love is all about trust. “On Tuesdays
Rafaela’s husband comes home late because that’s the night he plays dominoes. And then
Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked
indoors because her husband is afraid she will run away since she is so beautiful to look at”
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
(79). This quote shows that Rafaela isn’t trying to change her life around. Esperanza sees this
and she doesn’t want her life to be like that.
Alicia is another of Esperanza’s role models. She puts a good example out for people like her
that are trying to make a difference. She studies all the time. She wants to be someone when
she grows up. She doesn’t want to sleep around and get locked up in a house living off her
husband’s money. Esperanza tells us, “Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and
sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university. Two trains and a
bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (3132). This quote shows she is trying to change things around for her, her family, and for the
community. She takes “two trains and a bus” which shows that whatever or how long it
would take, she will still go for it. She is a good person and that does a lot for her. She sets her
goals and goes for them.
Esperanza is trying to set something out for herself. She is trying to get where Alicia is at right
now. She is trying to set examples for her little brothers and sister. She doesn’t want to sit
around and wait for someone to fix things for her. She is saying that she is independent.
Esperanza says, “One day I will pack my bags of books and papers. One day I will say
goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away”
(110). This means that she will one day go away. No one knows where but she is taking her
books and the main place she would need books is at school. When she says, “I am too
strong,” that shows she doesn’t need anyone to do things for her; she’s independent.
Rafaela and Sally were role models that would set Esperanza in the wrong direction, and
Alicia is a role model that would set her in the right direction. These are people who help her
figure out what she wants to be in life. Esperanza doesn’t want to be one of those women
that’s in an abusive relationship or locked up in her house. She wants to do what she likes.
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
Part III:
Illustrate an image from a vignette from Sandra Cisnero’s The House on Mango Street.
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Include appropriate images from the vignette (focus on specificity and attention to
detail).
Choose a specific quote to incorporate into your illustration in a SYMBOLIC or
METAPHORICAL representation.
Choose a passage from the vignette and complete an ANALYSIS of it (dialectical journal
style! Think in terms of speaker, situation, significance, stylistic devices, and
connections…)
OR… You and/or a group of friends could create a map of the neighborhood….
The House on Mango Street—Map Project
Overview: Sandra Cisneros’ novel presents vivid details, lively metaphors, and symbols
about Esperanza’s life and the lives of dozens of others who live on Mango Street. Each
chapter introduces the reader to more characters, conflicts and places in the neighborhood.
Since each chapter seems to be its own story, it is sometimes hard to imagine that all of this is
happening in or around the same block.
Directions: In a group, you could create, illustrate, and annotate a map of Mango Street.
Include the following pieces in your map:
1. Draw a map that accurately locates at least 10 of the character’s houses, apartments,
stores, etc. on Mango Street. You may also add other significant features of the
neighborhood like pets, objects, trees, etc.
2. Select one quotation from the novel for each building or feature of the street and copy it
onto your map in a physically or symbolically appropriate location. (For example if I
were talking about Esperanza’s house, I might write the quotation “It’s small and red
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District
with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their
breath” (4) on the windows of the house.)
3. Identify and list the characters that live in each house/apartment and the significant
events that happen at each location. (i.e. Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, Esperanza and
Nenny all live at 4006 Mango Street. Or, in his backyard, Meme Ortiz wins the First
Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest and breaks both arms).
4. Illustrate your map using appropriate colors and images from the novel. Recall the
significant images and metaphors that we have discussed in this class and use them to
illustrate your map. Recall that Esperanza’s house has “crumbling steps” and a
“swollen front door” and illustrate them accordingly.
Erin Carlson June 27, 2002 Castlemont High School, Oakland Unified School District