1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.
Characters:
Esperanza: She is the narrator of the story. She is a young girl who lives in a red house on Mango Street.
Nenny: She is Esperanza’s little sister. Her real name is Magdalena.
Lucy: Esperanza’s friend and neighbor.
Rachel: Esperanza’s friend and Lucy’s big sister.
Meme Ortiz: He moved into Cathy’s house after her family moved away. His real name was Juan.
Louie: He is the oldest in a Puerto Rican family of little sisters. He is a friend of Esperanza’s brother.
Guadalupe: She is Esperanza’s aunt.
Sally: She was Esperanza’s friend. Her eyes looked like Cleopatra’s. Her father was very strict.
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include a quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
HOUSE ON MANGO STREET
This book is about the life of Esperanza, a young girl who lives on Mango Street which is located in a rundown neighborhood of the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza had moved from house to house for a few years. Her parents always told her that “One day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on T.V. And we’d have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we took a bath we wouldn’t have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed” (pg.4).
Unfortunately, the house where they moved was not the house of her dreams because “The house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you would think they were holding their breath…Everybody has to share a bedroom-Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny”(pg.4). Before they moved to this house on Mango Street, she felt ashamed of the houses where she lived, especially the one on Loomis. She knew this was not the house she dreamed about, therefore she said, “I knew I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go” (pg.5). The next time she saw Alicia, Alicia said “You live here, 4006 Mango”, Esperanza then responded, “No, this isn’t my house…” and then she said, “I don’t belong. I don’t even want to come from here” (pg.106). She didn’t want to stay there forever; she wanted to expand her horizons, and to make her own future. She also wanted to surpass the expectations that others had for her. Esperanza was a young girl, with principles and morals and who believed in herself. She saw examples of people who can not make it in life, and she did not want to be one of them. She wanted to succeed in life; however, she knew that the road to success was not going to be easy. She had the support of her family and she knew that her parents would always be there for her, even though they could not help her financially. They lived in a poor and dangerous neighborhood, and she thought that “Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous. They think we will attack them with shinny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and go here by mistake” (pg.28). Then she said, “But we aren’t afraid…” (pg.28).
She knew the people in her neighborhood and so she felt safe. She tells stories about her friends and other people who lived in her neighborhood. Her first story is about Cathy, who think she’s the queen of cats, and who is going to be her friend but only for a week, because she is moving out of the neighborhood. Her parents think that the neighborhood is getting bad, and “In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in” (pg.13). She also told stories about her two friends Lucy and Rachel, two poor girls who she met the first day she moved in the neighborhood. The three of them collected money to buy an old bike, and then compromised in taking a ride together at the same time. She also speaks of other people in her neighborhood such as, Meme Ortiz, Louie, Louie’s cousin, who gets arrested for stealing a car, Marin (Louie’s girl cousin) who stands by the door dancing to music and looking at boys. She also talks about Rosa Vargas’s kids who are too many and too much; about Sally who’s father does not let her go out because he is very strict. She tells a story about Minerva who “is only a little bit older than me but already she has two kids and a husband who left” (pg.84).
Esperanza’s had a good heart and she was naive at times, like the time when she went with Sally to the fair, Sally left Esperanza all alone; waiting for her while she left with a boy. Esperanza waited standing next to the red clowns. Then the clowns attack her, she called Sally many times, “Sally, Sally a hundred times. Why didn’t you hear me when I called? Why didn’t you tell them to leave me alone? The one who grabbed me by the arm, he wouldn’t let me go. He said I love you, Spanish girl, I love you, and pressed his sour mouth next to mine” (pg.100).
After that, she learned to be wise from her own experiences in life. She wanted to get out of that neighborhood and she did not want to belong there. Esperanza was a very smart girl but she didn’t like the way she looked. She thought she was ugly, and she didn’t like her name. One day she said, “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do” (pg.11)
Esperanza always knew that there was something special about her, and in order to find out what it was, she needed to leave the neighborhood. The day after she spoke to the three sisters (las comadres) at the baby’s funeral, the sisters also saw something special in her and said, “She is special” (pg.104). They ask her to close her eyes and make one wish and said, “Well, that’s all there is to it. I’ll come true” (pg.105). Then they said, “When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza…” (pg.105).
Esperanza was full of hope and dreams, and one of those dreams was to have a beautiful house, “Not a daddy’s. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories…” (pg.108). She knew that she did not belong in that neighborhood, and at the end of the story she said, “One day I would pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say bye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away. Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to that Esperanza? Where did she go will all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away? They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I have left behind. For the ones who cannot out” (pg.110).
3. Formulate a question for discussion.
Do you think Esperanza left her neighborhood when she became an adult? And if she did, do you think she will ever go back?
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14 comments:
Yes, I feel that Esperanza seems to have enough wisdom and strength to put herself in better setting than Mango street where she is living. As for her coming back someday seems imply very important meaning. She said "I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind." I feel that this could mean she will be back when she is ready to accept people from true understanding with her heart and when she acheieve something to provide to poor and neglected people. She said in the book she will be happy to have bums in her upstairs. She is a warm-hearted girl!
Kristen
Esperenza does not like the way she was brought up and thus, she will leave Mango Street. However, this is the place where she has matured both sexually and emotionally. She has gotten attached with the people around her and has learned a life lesson through everyone. After Esperenza gets settled on her own, she desires to come back and help other women to leave Mango Street.
I think she did leave her neighborhood when she grew up. I believe this because in the end of the book she talks about how she is grateful to get out, and how others are not so fortunate. Esperanza is described as a very caring character throughout the book, one example is how she remained very loyal to Sally as a friend when she was worried for her safety back in that garden. By this caring nature i think she will go back to her neighborhood to help those who cant leave on their own.
Lev
I feel like Esperanza does leave her neighborhood once she becomes an adult. She isn't happy living there and once she is older she can make her own decisions. Plus, she might have a job by then so she may even have the money to move out. She desires throughout most of the book to move to someplace more upscale so once she becomes an adult she most likely has the chance. I assume she will only go back and visit the old neighborhood if her family is still living there and for no other reason. I think she would love to erase all memory of Mango Street from her mind if she can.
Yes, I think Esperanza will leave Mango street. She never liked the way she was raised or where she grew up. Mango street does have a lot of meaning for her because it is where she matured sexually and emotionally. Either way she has the ability and strength to move on, and she will. Yet she will come back and help the women from Mango street.
Esperanza is a person that learns from others mistakes as well as her own. I believe that she did leave the neighborhood to prevent the things that happened to her mother, the other ladies in the neighborhood, and her friends, from happening to her. She wants more from life, to become a "somebody" respectable in society eyes. However, she will not abandon her family and friends. She will not get the house and the education for selfish means. She will return home and help other children (and perhaps adults) reach their goals and succeed in life.
Esperanza clearly has a desire to leave her neighborhood on Mango Street, and she seems like the kind of person who would be able to pull off doing such a thing. She has enough ambition and, as mentioned in the text, she knows which trains to take on the Chicago Subway. I think she probably would come back if she left, but would be surprised at the state of the neighborhood
I think that Esperanza left her neighborhood because she seemed to be the only one with any ambitions. She analyzed the mistakes other people made, and she learned from them. She does not want to be stuck there. Esperanza might come back to visit her family, or to help out other people who want to escape from there, but not to live there forever.
Yes, She will leave the Mango Street when she became an adult. In the very begining of the story, she states clearly that she does not like Mango street. Even if she becomes a rich now, she will leave Mango Street with her family.
I think she will leave the neighborhood when she grows up. However, the experience of living in Mango Street will be always on her mind which means she cannot forget that, just like what author writes in the last page of the book:"what I remember most is Mango Street, the read house,the house I belong but do not belong to."(110)
Yes, Esperanza left her neighborhood when she became an adult. I think she comes back later in her life becuase she can detach herself with her origin and her background or family. I think it tells that there is "hope" (her name) to climb out of the lower class society but you always look back where you are from.
Esperenza will probably leave the Mango Street. That's her dream to leave the Mango Street, and I believe she has the ability to do so after she grow up. I don't know about is she going to come back, because she hate the Mango Street so much. If she come back, the only reason will be they she want to help other out.
I feel that she indeed did leave Mango Street when she was an adult. I think this because I don't see that she will just get up as an adolesent and leave. I think that she will definitely return becuase the woman previously told he that when she leaves, she should come back to help the other people that are still there.
If Esperanze has the opportunity to leave when she is an adult, I believe that she will return. In the chapter "Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes," the chapter ends with "They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out." This last sentence is a strong statement to me that she would leave for herself, but to come back and help others who cannot.
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