Those Who Don't
by Sandra Cisneros
Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're
dangerous.
They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got
here by mistake. But we aren't afraid. We know the guy with the crooked eye is Davey the
Baby's brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, that's Rosa's Eddie V., and the
big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he's Fat Boy, though he's not fat anymore nor a
boy.
All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and
our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight.
Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.
Questions - Answer the following questions in neat, detailed complete sentences.
1. How do outsiders view Esperanza’s neighborhood?
2. How do the people who live in Esperanza’s neighborhood view it?
3. How does Esperanza feel when she drives “into a neighborhood of another color?”
Quotes - Explain the significance of the following quotes.
1. All brown all around, we are safe.
2. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get
rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.
Themes
This chapter is a type of social commentary. Esperanza points out several things that reinforce prejudices and
segregation. What does she point out? What does she say will make the fear go away?
Style - Cisneros has a poetic style. She incorporates both vivid imagery and spare prose. She uses both to create a
picture of the narrator’s world.
1. What words does the narrator use to describe the trip into another neighborhood? How does this imagery
reinforce the idea of segregation?
2. Esperanza points out both sides of the social separation issue. What words does she use to show both sides?
3. What lines in this chapter create the sense of separation that the narrator feels? Does she believe that this will
change?
Personal Response
What do you believe will make the separations in our society change? Aside from racial segregation, what other factors
separate people? Will this change?