Text Based Questions for The House On Mango Streetby Sandra Cisneros
Part 1
(100 points)
Directions: Answer the following questions. Use textual evidence, including page numbers, to back up your answers. Answer in complete sentences. Make sure to answer all the questions.
Example: What point of view is the story told from and who is telling the story? Briefly describe her.
The point of view is first person, because the narrator says “I” frequently. Esperanza is telling the story. She is of Mexican heritage, named after her great grandmother, and is teased in school. She states that, “At school they say my name is funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” (page 11).
Chapter 1: The House on Mango Street
1. How does the narrator feel about moving? Cite evidence.
Chapter 4: My Name
2. What does Esperanza find shameful or burdensome about her name? Why might Cisneros have chosen this name for her protagonist?
Chapter 5: Cathy Queen of Cats
3. Do you think Cathy’s father will fly to France one day? Why or why not?
4. What do you think the last line implies?
Chapter 6: Our Good Day
5. How does Cathy act toward Lucy and Rachel? Why?
6. What would have happened if Esperanza listened to Cathy?
Chapter 7: Laughter
7. What similarities do Esperanza and Nenny have?
Chapter 8: Gil’s Furniture Bought & Sold
8. Why do you think she feels she has to look away and pretend it doesn’t interest her?
Chapter 9: Meme Ortiz
9. What indicates Esperanza is still a child?
10. How do the residents of Mango Street interact with one another?
Chapter 11: Marin
11. What does the last line imply about Marin?
Chapter 12: Those Who Don’t
12. Why do strangers feel afraid when they go to Esperanza’s town?
13. Why do people from Esperanza’s town feel afraid when they go to another town?
Chapter 13: There Was an Old Woman…
14. What is the mothers fate (situation)?
Chapter 14: Alicia Who Sees Mice
15. What is Alicia afraid of? Why?
16. How has Esperanza's relationships with Alicia changed since "Cathy Queen of Cats"?
Chapter 15: Darius and the Clouds
17. Why is Esperanza surprised that Darius says the cloud was God?
Chapter 16: And Some More
18. What is going on in this chapter?
Chapter 17: The Family of Little Feet
19. The girls are wearing their first pair of high heels. What might the shoes symbolize?
Chapter 18: A Rice Sandwich
20. Why does Esperanza want to stay at school and eat lunch in the canteen? What does she realize about canteen?
21. What kind of person is Esperanza? What does the reader learn from this story about her strengths and weaknesses?
Chapter 19: Chanclas
22. Why is Esperanza so concerned about her shoes?
23. What is significant about the last lines, “All night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance.” ?
Chapter 20: Hips
24. Why do you think this chapter talks about hips?
25. How does Esperanza distinguish herself from Nenny in this story? Does this distinction echo the one in "Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold"? Why or why not?
Chapter 21: The First Job
26. In your opinion, was Esperanza old enough for the job?
Chapter 22: Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark
27. What does Esperanza realize about her father?
Chapter 23: Born Bad
28. How does she explain diseases? Do you agree?
Chapter 24: Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water
29. What is Esperanza’s attitude toward the Fortune Teller?
30. Why is “home in the heart” so disappointing?
Chapter 25: Geraldo No Last Name
31. What do they know about Geraldo and how does Esperanza feel about this?
Chapter 28: Sire
32. How is Lois a contradiction?
Chapter 29: Four Skinny Trees
33. Why does Esperanza identify with the trees?
Chapter 30: No Speak English
34. What happens to Mamacita when she moves to the States and how does her husband act?
Chapter 31: Rafaela
35. What is Rafaela’s predicament?
Chapter 33: Minerva Writes Poems
36. What is Minerva’s life like? What will her daughter’s life be like?
Chapter 34: Bums in the Attic
37. Why would Esperanza have bums stay in her attic?
Chapter 35: Beautiful & Cruel
38. What does Esperanza want to be like when she’s older? Why?
39. What is Esperanza starting to think of men?
Chapter 36: A Smart Cookie
40. Compare and contrast Esperanza and her mother.
Chapter 38: The Monkey Garden
41. In the last line, Esperanza says, “And the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem mine anymore.” Why does she feel like this?
Chapter 39: Red Clowns
42. Why don’t the boys call Esperanza by her real name?
Chapter 40: Linoleum Roses
43. What is Sally’s fate?
Chapter 41: The Three Sisters
44. What “power” do the sisters have and what do they guess about Esperanza?
45. Why do they want Esperanza to come back? Why is this like a circle?
Chapter 42: Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps
46. What is Alicia implying when she asks, “Who’s going to do it? Not the mayor.”?
Chapter 43: A House of My Own
47. Why does Esperanza want a house so badly?
Chapter 44: Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
48. What does Esperanza mean when she says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.”?
49. Is there anything left undecided at the end of the novel?
Part 2
(100 points)
Directions: Write a five paragraph essay to answer the prompt below. You MUST include a hook, thesis statement, conclusion, and evidence (with page numbers) from the novel. In addition, it needs to be neatly written or typed.
Essay Prompt:
From the beginning, Esperanza senses she does not want to end up inheriting
her great-grandmother’s “place by the window . . . the way so many women sit
their sadness on an elbow” [“My Name” p. 11]. How does Esperanza emotionally
and physically separate herself from the other women: Marin, Sally, Rafaela,
Minerva, or Ruthie? Will her solution in “Beautiful & Cruel” [“I am one who leaves
the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate” p. 89]
be an effective one? How is her self-esteem formed, and how does it evolve over
the course of the novel? What obstacles will Esperanza have to overcome, and
what battles will she have to fight as she carves a future for herself?