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Selectio n Rev iew # 1
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 3 - 32
1. How does Esperanza feel about her family’s house on Mango Street? Why? What does the
dream of a house represent for Esperanza? Esperanza is glad that her family has stopped
moving around, but she is disappointed in the house on Mango Street. It is small and cramped;
the neighborhood is rundown and shabby. Espranza longs for a house that would provide her
and her family with a sense of security and dignity that they have not had up to this point.
2. Why does Esperanza dislike her name? How does she wish her life were different? Esperanza dislikes her name because it is too long and because it makes her think of her greatgrandmother, who was also named Esperanza. This great-grandmother spent most of her life
waiting at the window after she was forced to marry against her will. Esperanza does not want
this kind of life. She wants a name that is dashing and exciting, and a life to match. She also
wants a best friend who will understand her and with whom she can share her secrets. Until
she has such a friend, she says that she is like “a red balloon tied to an anchor” ---an adventurous spirit held back from pursuing her dreams.
3. Tell what the Mango Street neighborhood is like. Describe both its positive and negative
aspects. Though there are people of different cultures in the Mango Street neighborhood, most
are Hispanic. There is a strong sense of community, and many of the neighbors know one
another by name. The people are poor and the buildings and homes are run down. Crime is
not uncommon. Many residents feel trapped by their circumstances.
4. Because she is still a child, Esperanza is sometimes an unreliable narrator. List at least
three things in this section that are not as Esperanza first believes them to be. One thing
that is not as it first seems to Esperanza is the music box in Gil’s furniture store. It looks like
a dusty old box, but when it starts up it makes magical notes. Another example is Louie’s
cousin’s “new car.” Esperanza is thrilled to get a ride and does not realize that it is stolen. Even
when the police arrive with sirens and take Louie’s cousin away in handcuffs, she does not
understand how serious the situation is. As a last example, Esperanza is drawn to Marin and
her worldly experience with makeup, boys, and flirting. However, readers realize that Marin’s
approach to life will probably not lead to a better future for her.
5. Why does Esperanza admire both Alicia and Marin? Which do you think she is most like?
Explain. Esperanza admires both Alicia and Marin because they are older and have more
experience than she does. She likes the way Marin dresses and flirts, as well as her boldness
and confidence. However, like Alicia, Esperanza is unwilling to accept her circumstances or
the traditional role of women in her culture. Like Alicia, who is getting a college education so
that she can escape the grinding poverty of Mango Street, Esperanza will probably pursue a
realistic plan to accomplish her dreams.
continued...
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6. How does the author portray the situation of Hispanic women in this section? Give examples. In this section, the author suggests that Hispanic women are often held back both by
poverty and by cultural traditions. They are often overwhelmed by responsibilities at home:
Marin has to babysit her cousins, Rosa Vargas has so many children she can’t control them,
and Alicia gets up early to make tortillas for her father’s lunch. Men may be absent (Marin’s
boyfriend is in Puerto Rico), irresponsible (Rosa’s husband walked out and left her with the
children), or abusive (Alicia’s father controls her through fear). The author suggests that it is
unwise for a woman to pine after a man or count on a man to swoop down and magically
change her life.
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Selectio n Rev iew #2
T he H o use on Ma n go St reet
Pages 33 - 75
1. What does the sky symbolize for Esperanza? Give examples from several different stories
that show this symbolism. The sky represents beauty, joy, and freedom for Esperanza. It is
what makes life worthwhile, even though it is often filled with trouble and sadness. In “Darius
and the Clouds,” Darius is a troubled boy who notices the sky and watches clouds. In “And
Some More,” Esperanza and her friends also look at the sky and name the clouds; so does
Ruthie in “Edna’s Ruthie.” Finally, in “Four Skinny Trees,” the trees reach for the sky in spite
of the poor soil and concrete where they are planted. In the same way, Esperanza is striving
for a better life despite her harsh surroundings.
2. How does Esperanza feel about her entrance into womanhood? Give examples from these
stories. On one hand, Esperanza is happy to discover that she is becoming attractive to boys.
In “The Family of Little Feet,” she notes that her legs are “good to look at” when she wears
high heels. When she dances with her uncle in “Chanclas,” she is pleased that everyone is
admiring her dancing, and one boy in particular has his eye on her. She is curious about what
it would be like to be with a boy; in “Hips” she compares these feelings to a “new Buick with the
keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?” She is fascinated by Sire and Lois’ relationship,
and says that her feelings are “waiting to explode like Christmas.” One part of her wants to
“sit out bad at night. A boy around my neck and the wind under my skirt.” However, Esperanza
also realizes that these feelings can be dangerous, and that some men want favors from her
that she cannot and should not give them.
3. Sex is an issue that Esperanza and her friends cannot ignore. Give some examples in
which the girls face unwanted attention from men and boys in their neighborhood. When
Esperanza, Lucy, and Rachel wear the high-heeled shoes, men stare at them, and one offers
Rachel money to kiss him. The girls hurry home and are glad when the shoes are thrown away,
sensing that there is something wrong and scary about the attention they got in those shoes.
Another man grabs Esperanza and kisses her in the coatroom in “The First Job.” Sire is another
older boy or young man who looks at Esperanza in a way that “made your blood freeze,”
even though he has a girlfriend already.
4. The mood of most of these stories is grim and hopeless. List some of the problems Esperanza’s neighbors face in these vignettes. The people in Esperanza’s community are all poor,
but they face many other challenges as well. In “Born Bad,” Aunt Lupe suffers from a disease
that keeps her blind and weak in her bed for many years and finally kills her. “Geraldo No Last
Name” is an immigrant who works in a restaurant. When he is killed in a hit-and-run accident,
no one really even knows who he is. “Edna’s Ruthie” is a grown woman with developmental
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problems. She behaves like a child and doesn’t know how to read, but pretends she has had
several jobs and has a husband and a house in the country. “The Earl of Tennessee” is a
tenant who often brings home prostitutes. The children on Mango Street grow up exposed to
many kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior.
5. Why does Esperanza visit Elenita, the “witch woman”? Why is this important to her? What
is the result? Esperanza visits Elenita because she hopes the fortune teller will predict that
she will someday live in a nice house. This is important to Esperanza because a nice house
represents security and dignity for her. However, the fortune teller only says that she will have
“a home in the heart.” She then changes her prediction to “A new house. A house from the
heart,” but Esperanza is not very encouraged.
6. Why did Aunt Lupe encourage Esperanza to keep writing? What kind of hope does Esperanza find in the trees in the story “Four Skinny Trees”? Aunt Lupe wanted Esperanza to keep
writing because she said that it would “keep her free.” Aunt Lupe meant that writing would
allow Esperanza to express her thoughts and feelings freely. Also, becoming a good writer
could help her escape the poverty and misery of her life. The four skinny trees encourage
Esperanza to keep trying. They “grow despite concrete,” are strong, and reach for the sky.
Esperanza knows that she will have to be as stubborn and determined as the trees to make a
better life for herself.
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Selectio n Rev iew # 3
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 76 - 110
1. How does Esperanza describe the lives of most of the girls and women in her community?
Give examples. How is Esperanza’s attitude different from theirs? According to Esperanza,
most of the girls and women she knows not only suffer from poverty, but also do not enjoy very
much freedom or respect. Some, like mamacita, are held back because of their poor English.
Jealous husbands (like Rafaela’s) and strict fathers (like Sally’s) keep them in the house to
keep them away from other boys or men. Most of them are physically abused by their fathers
or husbands, but the husbands are allowed to be unfaithful or unreliable (like Minerva’s)
without facing any consequences. Most women and girls accept their situation, only rebelling
in small secret ways. However, Esperanza is determined to be different. She wants to write her
own story. She does not think that the way to a better life lies in finding a man to marry her.
2. What kind of person is Sally? How does her situation change over the course of this section? List two ironies in Sally’s situation. Sally is a very pretty girl whose father tries to control
her by keeping her home when she is not in school. He does not want her to disgrace the
family as her aunts did. However, Sally flirts with boys anyway. She dresses and uses makeup
in a grownup way that Esperanza envies, then scrubs it off to go home looking like a “good
girl.” Sally is not a very good friend; she tricks Esperanza and leaves her open to attack by a
group of boys with ugly intentions. Sally finally gets married before she even finishes eighth
grade, to a marshmallow salesman who keeps her in the house all the time and does not even
let her have visits from her friends or talk with them on the telephone. It is ironic (and sad)
that Sally’s father’s strictness, instead of protecting her and making her a “good girl,” makes
her rebel so much that she gets married at a young age just to get away from the house. It is
ironic that when Sally gets married to escape her father, she becomes even more of a prisoner
of her husband, who is just as controlling, jealous, and abusive as her father (maybe even
more so).
3. What does Esperanza not realize about Sally? What do the boys Sally hangs out with do
to Esperanza? Esperanza doesn’t seem to realize that Sally is going along with the boys,
teasing and flirting with them and willingly doing what they want. Esperanza tries to “save”
Sally when the boys make her go with them to the back of the Monkey Lot, but when Esperanza
arrives, both Sally and the boys look at her as if she were crazy. At the carnival, Sally tells
Esperanza to wait for her in a certain place while she goes off with a boy. However, she doesn’t
return; while Esperanza is waiting, several of the boys attack her sexually, and Sally does not
answer Esperanza’s cries for help.
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4. Who are the three sisters? How does their vision of Esperanza’s future differ from the
prediction she heard from Elenita? The three sisters are three old women who come to
Mango Street for a funeral. As soon as they meet Esperanza, they agree that she is special,
she will go far, and she will have her wish of leaving Mango Street some day. This is very
different from Elenita’s cautious prediction that Esperanza would have a “home in the heart.”
5. List at least three themes of this book, and explain how they are expressed in the last
few vignettes. Three themes of the book are:
(1) Women should be free to find happiness in their own goals, and not be dependent on
men. We see this in the many examples of women trapped in bad relationships with husbands,
boyfriends, or fathers. In contrast, Esperanza dreams of getting away from Mango Street and
having a house of her own, earned by her own hard work.
(2) Writing is a way to cope with hard experiences and find one’s inner freedom. We see this
when Esperanza writes, “I put it down on paper and the ghost does not ache so much. I write
it down and Mango... sets me free.”
(3) If you are able to rise above hard circumstances and make a good life for yourself, you
should come back to your community to help those who didn’t have that chance. We see this
in the advice Esperanza receives from the three sisters and Alicia, who tell her that Mango
Street will always be a part of her, and she should come back some day to help those who
are left behind. We also see it in Esperanza’s statement at the end of the book, “They will not
know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot
out.”
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Name:
L itera tu r e Te st # 1
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 3 - 32
1. Why isn’t Esperanza satisfied with her family’s house on Mango Street? What kind of house
does she want, and what does this kind of house represent for her?
2. What kind of person is Esperanza? List at least two things she wishes were different about
her life.
continued...
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3. As a child, Esperanza is sometimes an unreliable narrator. Tell about one situation or incident
that Esperanza describes but does not seem to fully understand.
4. How does the author present the situation of women in Esperanza’s neighborhood? How
does Esperanza feel about this?
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Name:
L itera tu r e Te st # 2
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 33 - 75
1. What do the sky and the four skinny trees symbolize for Esperanza in these vignettes? Explain.
2. What kinds of attention do Esperanza and her friends receive from men and boys in these
vignettes? Give several examples. Why do you think the author includes these incidents?
continued...
3. Describe Esperanza’s feelings about growing into womanhood. Give examples from the text.
4. The mood of these vignettes is mostly one of despair. Identify two people that Esperanza
describes whose situations are particularly difficult. How does Esperanza feel as she faces
so much hopelessness?
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Name:
L itera tu r e Te st # 3
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 76 - 110
1. Why do many of the women of Mango Street live unhappy lives? Give examples. How is Esperanza’s attitude different from that of most of the young women she knows?
2. How does her friendship with Sally hurt Esperanza? What is Sally’s solution to her family
problems? What is ironic about this solution?
continued...
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3. How do the three sisters and Alicia encourage Esperanza? What kind of future does she see
for herself by the end of the book?.
4. Identify one theme of The House on Mango Street. Tell how this theme is expressed in the
text.
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Name:
Vocab u la r y Tes t # 1
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 3 - 32
WRITE SENTENCES FOR THE FOLLOWING WORDS:
temporary
complicated
automatically
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Name:
Vocabu la r y Tes t # 2
T he H o us e on Ma n go St reet
Pages 33 - 75
WRITE SENTENCES FOR THE FOLLOWING WORDS:
descended
obvious
authority
despite
ferocious
57
Name:
Vocab u la r y Tes t # 3
T he H o u se on Ma n go Street
Pages 76 - 110
WRITE SENTENCES FOR THE FOLLOWING WORDS:
disgusted
hysterical
content
threshold