House on Mango Street - 10
Pre-reading Journals – Personal Connections
Section One: Self Definition and Identity
Pre-reading question: What is the personal significance of your given name (first, middle and last)? Does your name mean different things to you, your family, and your friends? What are your nicknames? What do your nicknames mean to you and those who call you those names?
Read The House on Mango Street; Hairs; Boys and Girls; My Name
Section Two: Friendship, Neighborhood, Home
Pre-reading question: Is living in a house your family owns different from living in a house or apartment your family rents? How? Are renters, owners and homeless people all considered equal citizens in America? Why or why not?
Read Cathy Queen of Cats; Our Good Day; Laughter; Gil’s Furniture Bought and Sold; Meme Ortiz; Louie, His Cousin and His Other Cousin
Section Three: Freedom and Entrapment
Pre-reading question: In what areas of your life are you most free to do what you like? In what areas of your life do you have the least freedom? Consider the roles gender, race, religion, education, class, age, and upbringing play in limiting an individual’s personal freedom.
Read Marin; Those Who Don’t; There Was an Old Woman…; Alicia Who Sees Mice; Darius and the Clouds; And Some More
Section Four: Growth and Maturity, Sexuality
Pre-reading question: How is growing into a teenage body (physically, mentally and emotionally) like moving into a new house/apartment? Compare the experiences of moving into a new house/apartment to the experiences of being a teenager.
Read The Family of Little Feet; A Rice Sandwich; Chanclas; Hips; The First Job
Section Five: Gender Roles and Expectations
Pre-reading question: Should parents/guardians raise their teenage girls in the same way that they raise their teenage boys? Why or why not? What rules should be the same for girls and boys? What should be different? Do you have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. who are treated differently from you because of gender? Explain.
Read Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark; Born Bad; Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water; Geraldo No Last Name; Edna’s Ruthie; The Earl of Tennessee; Sire
Section Six: Fitting in
Pre-reading question: Describe a situation where you once felt really out of place or uncomfortable. Why did you feel this way? What does the word “outcast” mean? What kinds of attributes make people into outcasts? Why must society have outcasts?
Read Four Skinny Trees; No Speak English; Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Pineapple Juice on Tuesdays; Sally; Minerva Writes Poems; Bums in the Attic
Section Seven: Escape
Pre-reading question: What parts of your life would you most like to escape? Can you escape these elements at some point in your life? If so, how? If not, why not?
Read Beautiful and Cruel; A Smart Cookie; What Sally Said; The Monkey Garden; Red Clowns; Linoleum Roses
Section Eight: Finding One’s “Home”
Pre-reading question: What inspires you most in life? What do you see your future holding for you? What obstacles might stand in your way? In what ways will you attempt to overcome them and achieve your future desires?
Read The Three Sisters; Alicia and I Talking on Edna’s Steps; A House of My Own; Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
During Reading Graphic Organizer
As you read the story and come across each house or apartment listed below, fill in the details about the place and the people who live there in the middle column. Write a significant quotation about the place (or what happens there) in the right-hand column.
The Houses / Details from the story / Significant QuotationsEsperanza’s house on Mango Street
Cathy’s house (p.12-13), the one that Meme Ortiz moves into after Cathy’s family moves out
Louie’s house where he lives with his family and his cousin Marin
Earl’s place
The Monkey Garden
Sally’s new house after she gets married
Esperanza’s dream house in the future
Open Mind Activity
Put yourself into Esperanza’s place at the end of p. 89. Fill in the open mind diagram below with objects, images, symbols and quotations from the story to provide a picture of what might be going through her mind. Be sure that you follow each quote with the page number on which it appears. You must include at least 2 quotations in your open mind. Write a paragraph explaining what you drew and wrote inside the open mind.
Thought Questions
The House on Mango Street - Laughter
1. Name the members of the narrator's family.
2. How was the house on Mango Street different than the other houses the family had lived in?
3. Describe the house on Mango Street.
4. Why does the narrator say Nenny is not her friend?
5. What does the narrator want to have someday?
6. What is the narrator's name? What does it mean in English and in Spanish? After whom is she named?
7. What did Esperanza buy? How did she go about buying it?
Gil's Furniture Bought & Sold - There Was an Old Woman
1. What did the girls discover in the furniture store that made Esperanza feel stupid?
2. What is special about the tree in Meme's yard?
3. What happened when Louie's other cousin visited?
4. Where is Marin going in a year? Why?
5. What matters, according to Marin?
6. What scares the people who come into Esperanza's neighborhood? What does Esperanza think of them?
7. What does Esperanza say the Vargas kids don't have?
Alicia Who Sees Mice - A Rice Sandwich
1. What does Esperanza say about Alicia?
2. What wise thing did Darius say?
3. What happened while the girls were looking at the clouds?
4. Where did the girls get the shoes? What did they do with them?
5. What happened when Esperanza took the note asking if she could stay for lunch?
Chanclas - Born Bad
1. Why doesn't Esperanza want to dance?
2. How does Esperanza describe her feet?
3. To what does Esperanza compare her hips?
4. What information about hips does Esperanza have?
5. Why does Esperanza want to work?
6. What happened to her at her job?
7. What news had Papa received? What does Esperanza do?
8. What did the girls do to Aunt Lupe? Why did they do it? What happened to Aunt Lupe that day? What did Esperanza's mother say about it?
Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water - No Speak English
1. How does Esperanza describe Elenita?
2. Esperanza asked about a house. What was Elenita's response?
3. Who was Geraldo? What happened to him? How did Marin feel about it?
4. What is different about Ruthie?
5. What does Esperanza think about Ruthie?
6. What do all of the children in the neighborhood disagree on regarding Earl? About what do they agree?
7. Who are Sire and Lois? What did Esperanza notice about Sire?
8. What does Esperanza say about the trees?
9. What broke Mamacita's heart?
Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut . . . - What Sally Said
1. Why does Rafaela's husband lock her in the apartment?
2. What does Rafaela like to drink?
3. According to Esperanza, what does Sally want?
4. Describe Minerva's life.
5. Why doesn't Esperanza go out with her family on Sundays anymore?
6. What does Esperanza say she will do when she is older?
7. What does Esperanza decide about growing up?
8. What does Esperanza's mother say about herself? What does she tell Esperanza?
9. What happened to Sally?
The Monkey Garden - Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
1. How did Esperanza feel when Sally went into the garden with the boys? What did she do?
2. Why does Esperanza think Sally got married?
3. What does Sally do all day? Why?
4. What did the three sisters tell Esperanza?
5. How does Esperanza feel about Mango Street?
6. How does Esperanza describe the house she wants?
7. What does Esperanza say she likes to do?
Post Reading Group Work
GROUP 1 - Please write your answers on the back of this sheet to be given to me
- Describe Esperanza. Can you find specific places in the book where she is described physically? Emotionally?
- What kind of girl do you think she is? What are her feelings, hopes, dreams, fears?
- How might she define the "American Dream?"
GROUP 2 - Please write your answers on the back of this sheet to be given to me
- Describe Esperanza's family. What do we know about her mother, father, brother and sister? Can you find places in the book where they are discussed?
- What kinds of dreams do you think Esperanza's parents have for their children?
- How would they define the "American Dream?"
GROUP 3 - Please write your answers on the back of this sheet to be given to me
- Describe the house on Mango Street and the neighborhood around it. Who lives there?
- Who are Esperanza's friends?
- Most of the people in the neighborhood are Latino (of Spanish heritage) and they are poor. Based on the book, what have you learned about Latino culture? About American culture?
Project Choices
Read the descriptions of each project below and chooseone. You may work alone or with one partner. Each project is worth 100 points. Make sure you turn in the completed cover sheet with your project.
1. Art Gallery:
The novel is filled with colorful and descriptive images of Esperanza’s world. Choose 10 vignettes that contain particularly powerful imagery and illustrate different events, people, or places on Mango Street. On the back of each artistic rendering, explain why you chose to illustrate that particular thing and how you decided which images/figurative language to concentrate on. Use quotations from the text in your explanation.
Example: Illustrate Gil’s Furniture Store and, on the back, summarize the important scene that happened there. Include a quotation from that vignette.
2. Use Google Earth to virtually visit all the places mentioned in the book. In a minimum three paragraph essay (typed or written neatly in blue or black ink), describe:
- Where you went (10)
- How you got to each place (10)
- What each place was like (30)
- What you thought of the experience (25), and finally
- Whether or not it helped your understanding of The House on Mango Street (25)
3. Mango Street Quilt
Your “quilt” should be made up of individual squares dedicated to important vignettes, characters, events, symbols, or images in the novel. Each square should contain a visual representation and a relevant quotation from the text. On the back of each square (or an attached piece of paper, if the squares are numbered), you should explain your reasoning for selecting the event or character you portrayed. Why is it significant? The size of the quilt should be at least 5x5 (25 total squares). You may choose the materials for your quilt.
Example: One square contains a picture of a large number nine. Underneath, it reads “In English, my name means hope. In Spanish, it means too many letters…It is like the number nine” (p. 10). On the back of the square is an explanation of the “My Name” vignette and how Esperanza’s name represents her emerging identity as an independent and hopeful woman.
4. Explore Mexico. Write a report on:
- Three famous Mexican scientists/mathematicians (25)
- Details about the people, customs, courtesies, and lifestyle of the people of Mexico. Include a recipe. (25)
- Write an additional paragraph about how your investigation either changed or reinforced your understanding of Esperanza and the other characters in The House on Mango Street (25)
5. Board Game:
Your board game should represent life on Mango Street, including the places, people, and events that happen there. Your game should include a decorative board, player pieces, a written book of rules, and explanations for how and why you chose what people, places, and events to represent. Important quotations should somehow be woven in, either on board spaces, playing cards, etc. Note: The game should actually be able playable!!
Example: Your board game shows a winding road with each individual space labeled with a different place name, such as Gil’s Furniture Store, Esperanza’s House, etc. You must answer trivia questions on playing cards in order to advance your pieces, which are each an important symbol in the novel (one is a house, one is a shoe, etc.)
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