Concept/Vocabulary Analysis of
The House on Mango Street
By Sandra Cisneros
Organizational Patterns
Vignettes
Cisneros organizes House on Mango Street with vignettes that read with an intimacy
characteristic of journal entries. Most vignettes highlight Esperanza’s thoughts on her neighbors,
family members, and teachers at school. Other vignettes highlight the humor and angst related to
the teenage years:
Framing Devices?
House on Mango Street is a short, quick read of 110 pages in length. The story is framed
at the beginning and end of the novel by Esperanza’s longing for her dream house. Her house on
Mango Street clearly does not fit the home she imagined. In the introductory vignette, titled “The
House on Mango Street,” Esperanza mentions that although her family no longer has to pay rent,
share the yard, or worry about making too much noise, the house on Mango Street is “still not the
house we’d thought we’d get” (3)
The last two vignettes—“A House of My Own” and “Mango Says Goodbye
Sometimes”—once again address Esperanza’s longing for a quiet, clean home and her dislike of
her “sad red house, the house I belong to but do not belong to” (110). However, through the
experiences she recounts throughout the novel, Esperanza has come to terms with her house on
Mango Street as she realizes that she can choose to leave, saying, “One day I will pack my bags
of books and paper. 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). Cisneros uses Esperanza’s discussion of her house
on Mango Street to show an initial rise in conflict and a resolution as Esperanza gains confidence
in her abilities and potential.
Description
Cisneros writes in very descriptive yet simple language, creating surprisingly
humorous and profound images through personification and metaphor. Descriptive
language creates Esperanza’s colorful world of beauty and ugliness. Here are few
examples found throughout the text:
“But 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’d think they were holding their
breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have
to push hard to get in” (4).
“Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One
who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am
a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (9).
Speaking of hips: “One day you wake up and they are there. Ready and waiting
like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?” (49)
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Dialogue
Although House on Mango Street is told from Esperanza’s point of view there is
still dialogue between characters in the novel. Cisneros does not include quotation marks
to set the speakers apart, creating the feeling that this in fact a personal, first-hand
account. The dialogue is simple and straightforward to imitate the way children speak and
to create a trusted realism to Esperanza’s accounts. Here is an example from “Elenita,
Cards, Palm, Water”:
Look in it, do you see anything?
But all I see are bubbles.
You see anybody’s face?
Nope, just bubbles, I say.
That’s okay, and she makes the sign of the cross over the water three times and
then begins to cut the cards. (63)
Issues Related to the Study of Literature?
Theme
Cisneros includes many themes that speak to a universal audience, but that are
most powerfully felt by adolescents and the minority Latino culture. These themes
include:
1. The power of language:
a. “[…] I believe she doesn’t come out because she is afraid to speak
English, and maybe this is so since she only knows eight words. She
knows to say: He not here for when the landlord comes, No speak English
if anybody else comes, and Holy smokes. I don’t know where she learned
this, but I heard her say it one time and it surprised me” (77).
b. “The Eskimos got thirty different names for snow, I say. I read it in a
book” (35).
2. Struggle for identity (Belonging and not belonging):
a. “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” (28).
b. “I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the
real me, the one nobody sees. Especially as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze
the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do” (11).
3. Sexuality:
a. “Them are dangerous, he says. You girls too young to be wearing shoes
like that. Take them shoes off before I call the cops, but we just run”(41).
b. “You gotta be able to know what to do with hips when you get them, I
say making it up as I go. You gotta know how to walk with hips, practice
you know—like if half of you wanted to go one way and the other half the
other” (50).
c. “Sire. How did you hold her? Was it? Like this? And when you kissed
her? Like this?” (73).
d. “In the movies there is always one with red lips who is beautiful and
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cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away.
Her power is her own. She will not give it away” (89).
e. “Sally, you lied. It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he
touched me. I didn’t want it, Sally. The way they said it, the way it’s
supposed to be, all the storybooks and movies, why did you lie to me?”
(99)
4. Houses:
a. “I want a house on a hill like the ones with the gardens where Papa
works. […] One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am
or where I came from. Passing bums will ask, Can I come in? I’ll offer
them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a
house” (86-7).
b. “Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper
before the poem” (108).
c. “[…] what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I
belong to but do not belong to” (110).
d. “The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to
anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to
make too much noise, and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling
with a broom. But even so, it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get” (3).
5. Escaping/Leaving:
a. “Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same
song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall,
someone to change her life” (27).
b. “Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta
muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat
and cries, my brave Papa cries” (56).
c. “And then she died, my aunt who listened to my poems” (61).
d. “His name was Geraldo. And his home is in another country. The ones
he left behind are far away, will wonder, shrug, remember. Geraldo—he
went north…we never heard from him again” (66).
e. “I could have been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school.
Study hard” (91).
Characterizations:
Many of Esperanza’s vignettes speak about the people around her—family,
friends, neighbors, and teachers. Esperanza characterizes these people simply and the
reader can easily tell who she likes and dislikes. Some of her characterizations include:
a. “But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little
candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day,
sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you
feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, [..]” (7).
b. “Nenny is too young to be my friend. She’s just my sister and that was
not my fault. You don’t pick your sisters, you just get them and sometimes
they come like Nenny” (8).
c. “Ruthie, tall skinny lady with red lipstick and blue babushka, one blue
sock and one green because she forgot, is the only grown-up we know
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who likes to play. She takes her dog Bobo for a walk and laughs all by
herself, that Ruthie. She doesn’t need anybody to laugh with, she just
laughs” (67).
d. “All at once she bloomed. Huge, enormous, beautiful to look at, from
the salmon-pink feather on the tip of her hat down to the little rosebuds of
her toes. I couldn’t take my eyes off her tiny shoes” (77).
Setting
The setting of this novel is very important. In fact, we are introduced to the
setting—the house on Mango Street—before we learn Esperanza’s name. The setting
includes all of Mango Street, the other people, houses, and businesses in the area are all
drawn into the frame of the story by Esperanza’s interaction with them. Mango Street is a
rundown area of town and Esperanza describes the house itself as “small and red” with
“tight steps,” small windows, no yard, “a small garage,” one washroom, and only enough
bedrooms for sharing (4).
Symbolism
The following images repeatedly occur throughout the novel:
a. Shoes: Esperanza has many interactions with shoes of all different styles
and colors—from the blue, yellow, and white shoes her and her friends
run around town in, to her despised worn-out brown church shoes. These
shoes represent femininity and Esperanza’s longing to be sexual attractive
and independent. Esperanza longs to be sexually free like Sally, and she
notices Sally’s sophisticated black suede shoes and longs for her own.
b. Trees: Esperanza has great respect for trees as they symbolize resilient
independence and “secret” strength amidst adversity in “Four Skinny
Trees.” She relates to the trees because they to do not belong on Mango
Street. They are “[f]our who do not belong her but are here” (74).
Point of View
The people, places, and events on Mango Street are all seen through Esperanza.
Esperanza describes herself from two different points of view: how she sees herself and
how she thinks others see her. In “My Name” Esperanza writes, “At school they say my
name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth" (11).
Tone
The simplistic language and syntax of Cisneros’ writing creates Esperanza as an
innocent and naive girl. However, Esperanza presents the world around her in a
straightforward, realistic manner that makes the reader trust her insights and explanations
about life on Mango Street. The straightforward, innocent tone also serve to blunt the
sharpness of the more serious content about sexuality, abuse, and death. This is seen in
Esperanza’s worry for her abused friend Sally.
“Sally, do you sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? Do you wish your
feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, […]”
(82).
What are the affective issues related to the work? (Students’ personal experiences)
Secondary education students will identify on many levels with House on Mango
Street. Esperanza is a likeable character, one who is easy to understand, straightforward,
and honest about her feelings and experiences. She shares all of her experiences with the
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reader, whether it is embarrassing, shameful, sad, triumphant, or humorous. Esperanza
deals with death, moving, feeling like an outsider, teasing, sexual assault, struggling to
find her identity, and a longing for freedom and independence. The joys and angst of
adolescence are all present for the students to respond and connect with. It is also a great
book to introduce class discussion about diversity, and makes an important step to
include minority students.
What are the vocabulary issues?
There are really no vocabulary issues. According to the Raygor Readability
Estimate, The House on Mango Street is at a fourth grade reading level. There are a few
times when Cisneros uses slang that goes unexplained and could possibly pose problems
for some readers. This is seen in the vignette “Geraldo No Last Name” when Esperanza
calls Geraldo a “brazer” and the students are only left with the end of the sentence to
explain this as someone “who didn’t speak English” (66).
What are the major concepts of the work?
Although vocabulary is not likely to be an issue for secondary education students,
the content is for a more mature audience. Esperanza’s writings include her thoughts on
her abused friend Sally. She also speaks of her own experience with abuse when she is
sexually assaulted. There are also other mature themes, such as death, poverty, and
violence. Because of the more mature concepts, I would recommend this book to ninth
grade students and up.
What prior knowledge is important to understanding and enjoying the work?
The only prior knowledge that students need is to have had experience with
adolescence. The emotions, hopes, and struggles of this time are important to be able to
identify with Esperanza. Also, an understanding of the greatly increasing “minority”
population or Latino culture would help students understand Esperanza’s longing for
freedom and her desire to “[go] away to come back” (110).
What are the implications of the work for students of diversity?
I chose this book, because I thought “This is a wonderful book for students of
diversity!” The language is simple to understand and the content is even simpler for
students of diversity to understand. I think they will be able to make a strong connection
with Esperanza and her adolescent struggles and her feelings that she is constantly away
from home.
What are the gender issues?
The main gender issues in this book deal with feminine sexuality and
independence. Esperanza hopes that she will be able to stay strong and independent like
the trees whose roots are so powerfully put in the ground. She sees the ongoing
unhappiness that comes to her friend Sally, always in the form of masculine abuse. Sally
is beat and isolated by her father. She then marries young and is further abused by her
husband. Because the main character is a girl, boys may not enjoy it as much as the girls.
However, there are important moments that confront male sexuality, such as when
Esperanza’s father is seen crying when his father passes away. The Hispanic culture
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promotes the emotional and physical strength of males. The class could discuss whether
or not Esperanza’s father is weak in showing this emotion?
What are the things that you want students to remember about reading this work?
I want students to realize that there are others feeling the same way they do. I
want students to come away with strong personal connections to the text and an increased
ability to recognize similar experiences in their own lives. I also want students to realize
that simple language can be powerful. They do not have to write using long sentences and
confusing vocabulary to express their feelings and experiences accurately.
What is the central question/enduring issue?
Esperanza leaves us with a hopeful message of leaving only to return and improve
the conditions and people once left behind. She says:
“One day I will go away.
Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to that Esperanza? Where did she
go with 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 left behind.
For the ones who cannot out” (110).
This quote prompts the central question: “Where will you go?” “What will you do?” This
could be tied in with Dr. Seuss’ children’s book Oh, The Places You’ll Go.
What research issues/project ideas fit this literary work?
I would create a continuing project where students keep an in-class journal,
recording their thoughts and feelings about the people, environment, and events that
surround them. I would encourage the students to write simply, clearly, and creatively.
To encourage this type of writing I would have the students follow this writing exercise:
Write a half page paragraph using only one syllable words. The sentences can be
from one to ten words. Share your paragraphs in small groups of two to three.
Discuss: Was it difficult? What were you able to write? What choices were you
forced to make? What time did it take you back to?, etc.
Write another half page paragraph, this time you can use some two syllable
words, but try to keep at least half of the words one syllable. Make each sentence
four words shorter or four words longer than the sentence before it. Once again,
read paragraph in small groups and discuss similar questions as above.
I think it would also be interesting to see the students draw pictures and write
more on the characterizations Esperanza writes about. After they are finished the students
can post their pictures and accompanying short stories on the wall.
What kinds of informational/functional texts would support the reader during the
study of this literary work?
I think it always important to bring in recent events to inform students on what is
happening in their world today. I could clip out news articles that deal with immigration
concerns, split the students into small groups and have them discuss the issues in the
articles. We would then move to a larger class discussion on current events. (Currently,
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these could include recent news articles on the immigration laws and the recent national
boycott of illegal immigrants.)
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