Sandra Cisneros
About the Author

 Sandra Cisneros is a novelist, poet, short story
writer, and essayist whose work gives voice to
working-class Latino and Latina life in America.
Her lyrical, realistic work blends aspects of "high"
and popular culture.
 In 1995 Cisneros was awarded the prestigious
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and
subsequently organized the Latino MacArthur
Fellows, Los MacArturos, into a reunion focusing
on community outreach. Most recently she was
awarded the Texas Medal of the Arts, 2003.
How the story was born:

 Like Esperanza Cordero, the protagonist of The
House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros grew up
poor in Chicago.
 The only daughter among seven children in a
household headed by a Mexican father and a
Mexican American mother, Cisceros began writing at
a young age.
 Scholarships enables her to attend Loyola University
in Chicago and later the prestigious University of
Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.
 She was shy and self-conscious about her writing ability.
 The fact that houses symbolize the inner self in literature made
her worry because she was too ashamed to talk or write about
her own house, especially around the privileged people at the
writer’s workshop.
If houses represented the soul, and she was too
ashamed to speak of her house, could she be a real
writer?
 Ironically, this experience led Cisneros to write about where
she came from, and eventually she realized that her povertystricken past had given her writing a truly distinct voice.
 This insight led her to work on The House on Mango Street
which was first published in 1984 by Arte Publico Press.
• Neighborhood: Humboldt Park in NW Chicago
• Population: mainly Puerto Rican but from the 1960s
onward an increasing number of Mexican
immigrants joined community.
• By 1980 Mexicans represented almost one-third of
Humboldt Park's 29,000 Latinos
The Real House on Mango Street
1524 North Campbell Avenue
Culture: Chicanos

A book about a culture—that of Chicanos, or MexicanAmericans—that has long been veiled by demeaning
stereotypes and afflicted by internal ambivalence.
Chicanos have been excluded from the American mainstream.
Cisneros uses language as a recurring metaphor for the gulf
between Mexican-Americans and the majority culture, but
what keeps Esperanza Cordero and her family and friends
locked in their barrio is something more than just language:
 1. racism
 2. poverty
 3. shame
The ancestors of many Chicanos did not come to the United
States by choice, but simply found themselves in alien territory
as a result of the U.S.'s expansionist policy into country that
had once been Mexican.
Format

Vignette – A brief, evocative
description, account, or episode
“to tell one big story, each
story contributing to the
whole—like beads in a
necklace.”
~Cisneros
Open your books to page 6, the vignette “Hairs”
I need 4 volunteers to take turns reading each
paragraph.
In the vignette “Hairs,” Sandra Cisneros reveals a lot
about the narrator’s family, especially her mother, through
a discussion of one physical trait: hair. Her first
paragraph describes the hair of the narrator’s father and
the hair of her siblings, using those descriptions to give the
reader insight into each of their personalities. Cisneros
also reveals the narrator’s feelings towards her mother in
the passage, using a variety of stylistic devices to achieve
this effect.
Let’s explore some of these stylistic devices
Literary Terms

Style
 the distinctive way in
which a writer uses
language, from how
he/she puts sentences
together to his/her
choice of vocabulary
and use of literary
devices.
Synecdoche
 the act of using a part to
describe the whole
 Example: In the vignette
“Hairs,” Sandra Cisneros
reveals a lot about the
narrator’s family,
especially her mother,
through a discussion of
one physical trait: hair.
Metaphors and Similes

Metaphor
 a comparison between
two things that are
basically dissimilar in
which one thing
becomes another.
 Example: “But my
mother’s hair…is the
warm smell of bread
before you bake it.”
Simile
 a comparison between
two things that are
basically dissimilar
using “like” or “as” to
make the comparison.
 Example: “My papa’s
hair is like a broom.”
Personification and
Sensory details

Personification
Sensory details
 the act of giving human
qualities to something
that is not
human/inanimate.
 images and/or details
that emphasize our senses
(sight, sound, smell, taste,
touch) to recreate a scene
for the reader
 Example: “And me,
my hair is lazy.”
 Example: “The snoring,
the rain, and Mama’s hair
that smells like bread.”
Alliteration and
Repetition

Alliteration
Repetition
 the repetition of similar
consonant sounds within
a phrase or sentence.
 the act of repeating
words or phrases for
dramatic effect
 Example: “It is the smell
when she makes room for
you on her side of the bed
still warm with her skin.
 Example: In “Hairs,”
the words “hair,”
“holding you,” and
“rain” are repeated.
Let’s try it on our own
Think about the people in your own family, the characteristics
you share with them and those which make them (and you)
distinctive. Decide which physical trait you would like to write
about. Is the trait one you share with your family or yours
alone? How might you present your piece with metaphors,
similes, personification, alliteration, repetition, and sensory
details?

Using “Hairs” as a model, write a vignette about your own
life that discusses an important physical trait and how it
reveals something about the person who possesses it and
your relationship to him/her. You may choose to discuss a
trait that all of you share, or one that makes a particular
family member—or you—stand out from the others because
it is different. You must incorporate at least three stylistic
devices in your vignette.
Bildungsroman
German for
"formation novel“
A genre of the novel
which focuses on
the psychological
and moral growth
of the protagonist
from youth to
adulthood
A Coming of Age
Novel
Growing up: Let’s trace Esperanza’s maturity process
Vignette 1: “Boys and Girls”
Vignette 2: “The Family of Little Feet”
Vignette 3: “Chanclas”
Vignette 4: “Hips”
Vignette 5: “The 1st Job”
Vignette 6: “The Monkey Garden”
Vignette 7: “Red Clowns”
• Message or lesson the author wants the reader
to learn
• Must be a universal lesson (can be applied to
everyone’s life, not just the particular
characters in the particular book).
• Must be a complete thought/sentence
How do I articulate a
work’s theme?

Formula: Sometimes (fill in the blank) a person (fill in
the blank) because/for/in order to/so that (fill in the
blank).
Example from The Hunger Games:
Sometimes when placed in a difficult situation, a
person must make a self-sacrificing choice for the
betterment of others.
Let’s Read and Make
Some Inferences

-
Title of work
The House on Mango Street (3-5).
Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water (62-64).
Bums in the Attic (86-87).
The 3 Sisters – Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
(103-110).
Sometimes
a person
because/for/in order to/so
that