The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
“Reading is actually plunging into one’s own identity and, one hopes, emerging stronger than before.”
- Amalia Kahana-Carmon
Background:
The House on Mango Street is a novella made up of forty-four vignettes. A vignette is a
short, well-written sketch, descriptive scene, or story. It does not always have a plot, but it does
reveal something about the elements in it. It may reveal character, mood, or tone. Each
vignette has a theme or idea that it wants to convey. It is the description of the scene or the
character that is important because each one contributes to the big picture. The vignettes add up,
as Sandra Cisneros writes, "to tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole – like beads
in a necklace."
The vignettes are told through the poetic and imaginative voice of a young Latina girl,
Esperanza Cordero. Esperanza learns about the realities of her world and struggles with growing
up in Chicago’s poverty-stricken south side. Cisneros uses Esperanza’s journey to explore many
aspects of human nature. Each vignette gives the reader an opportunity to look through a
window and see a part of Esperanza’s world while also giving the reader a chance to look in the
mirror and examine his or her own life. As Cisneros says, “You, the reader, are Esperanza…You
cannot forget who you are.”
As we read Esperanza’s struggles with growing up and creating her own identity, we will
explore our own personal identity and what it means to be human.
Who is Sandra Cisneros?
Sandra Cisneros (b. 1954), the daughter of a Mexican father
and a Mexican American mother, grew up in the poor
neighborhoods of Chicago, where she attended public schools.
The only daughter among seven children, Cisneros recalled that
because her brothers attempted to control her and expected her to
assume a traditional female role, she grew up feeling as if she had
"seven fathers." The family's frequent moves, many of them
between the United States and Mexico to visit a grandmother, left
Cisneros feeling alone and displaced. She found refuge in reading
widely and in writing poems and stories.
In the late 1970s, Cisneros's writing talent earned her
admission to the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop. There,
Cisneros observed, "Everyone seemed to have some communal
knowledge which I did not have.... My classmates were from the
best schools in the country. They had been bred as fine hothouse
flowers. I was a yellow weed among the city's cracks." This realization led Cisneros to focus her
writing on the conflicts and yearnings of her own life and culture.
Her writings include four volumes of poetry, Bad Boys (1980), The Rodrigo Poems (1985),
My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), and Loose Woman (1994) and two volumes of fiction, The
House on Mango Street (1983) and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). She is
also the author of a bilingual children's book, Hairs = Pelitos (1994).
English II
Mrs. Biggs
Essential Questions: How do external forces shape the individual?
• Where does our sense of identity come from?
• How do dreams affect people? Why are dreams important?
• How is oppression created within a culture?
• What responsibilities do those who succeed have for those who can’t help themselves?
Thematic Questions:
• Self-Definition and Identity- How does culture define you? How do others define you?
How do you define yourself?
• Freedom and Entrapment/Oppression- What does it mean to be “free”? How does
culture oppress you? What is entrapment? Does America promote “freedom” or
“oppression”? What are the effects of entrapment and oppression?
• Gender Roles and Expectations- What are gender role expectations? How are you
treated when you go against the expectation? Does the expectation set you up to
succeed or fail? Why?
• Fitting In and Sense of Belonging- How is belonging a “basic need”? Why do we go to
great lengths to fit in? What is the effect of not fitting in? Do you have a greater
chance of success by fitting in or not fitting in? Why? What does it mean to
“belong”?
• Future Opportunities/Dreams and Limitations- Why do dreams fail? What is the effect
of failed dreams? Why are dreams important? How do limitations affect dreams?
English II
Mrs. Biggs