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“Then he starts it up, and all sorts of things start happening. It’s like all of a sudden he let go a million moths all over the dusty furniture and swan-neck shadows and in our bones.” (20)

Not the shy ice cream bells’ giggle of Rachel and Lucy’s family, but all of a sudden and surprised like a pile of dishes breaking.” (17)

“At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as my sisters name-Magdalena-which is uglier than mine.” (11)

“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, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed, still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring.” (7)

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Esperanza lives in a working class densely populated neighborhood.  She describes her house as “….sad and red and crumbly in places…”p16. Later Esperanza describes a neighbor’s cousin being arrested after taking a stolen Cadillac for a joyride before getting arrested.  She also describes how lost drivers show up in her neighborhood scared.  “They think we will attack them with shiny knives.”p28  All of these descriptions remind me of Westside Story.  I just recently saw the new remake of the movie.  The imagery of a congested urban neighborhood where someone might invite you to joyride in a stolen car or where Marin dreams of some rich man noticing her and marrying her taking  her away to live in a big house,  In Westside story the physical environment and characters seem similar.

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“They don’t walk like ordinary dogs, but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.”

“Rafaela who drinks and drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays and wishes there were sweeter drinks, not bitter like an empty room, but sweet sweet like the island, like the dance hall down the street where women much older than her throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys.”

“Do you wish your feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, far away and maybe your feet would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows and steps for you to climb up two by two upstairs to where a room is waiting for you.”

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Cumulus: cloud forming rounded masses heaped on each other above a flat base at fairly low altitude.

Linoleum: a material consisting of a canvas backing thickly coated with a preparation of linseed oil and powdered cork, used especially as a floor covering.

satin: a type of weave and not a material.

Double-Dutch rope: a jump-rope game played with two long jump ropes swung in opposite directions so that they cross rhythmically.

canteen: a restaurant provided by an organization such as a military camp, college, factory, or company for its soldiers, students, staff, etc.

saddle shoes: a  white oxford shoe with a piece of leather in a contrasting color (typically black or brown) stitched across the instep.

communion: the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.

merengue: a Caribbean style of dance music typically in duple and triple time, chiefly associated with Dominica and Haiti.

tembleque: a coconut dessert pudding from Puerto Rico.

Naphtha: a flammable oil containing various hydrocarbons, obtained by the dry distillation of organic substances such as coal, shale, or petroleum.

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How does the first-person perspective change the feel of the story? Would it be as interesting/ moving if it were written in second or third person?

What character traits are suggested for each of Esperanza’s family members by the narrator’s description of each one’s hair?

Why is it bad luck for a woman to be born in the year of the horse?

Why does Esperanza say that she has her grandmother’s name but doesn’t “want to inherit her place by the window”?

In the last vignette, Esperanza mentions how some people saw her neighborhood as dangerous. Have you ever judged a place by its appearance? If so, were you right?

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This is an illustration of the first ever Tarzan Jumping contest where a friend of Esperanza breaks both their arms while winning.

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Come to class prepared to share and discuss your job. If you are unable to complete your work, you will be given one day to finish and post it.

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All jobs need to be posted before class. If you fail to do so, you can post at the beginning of the meeting. Just do it as early as possible please.

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How does the use of vignettes alter the book, and how does this change the story?

How does the lack of quotation marks, and overall lack of grammar change the book?

How does the use of vignettes help character development in the smaller characters, as well as the main ones?

Esperanza’s life is shaped out more in these vignettes. How does her life develop, and how does she start developing as a person?

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Do you think Esperanza has changed dramatically? How?

As Esperanza has been sexually assaulted. Is this a good thing for her to feel to be able to work harder later in her life? Why?

Esperanza is getting older and learning more about her life. Why could this be a bad thing or good thing because her life hasn’t been the greatest life ever seen?

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1. “The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can’t replace”(29)

2. “There was a family. All were little. Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small”(39)

3. “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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Why do you think Cisneros linked the beginning and the end of the book by listing all the streets Esperanza has lived at?

Why do you think the author wrote about Sally so much? Do you think Sally’s life was an example of what Esperanza doesn’t want to happen to her?

In the vignette Alicia and I Talking on Edna’s Steps, why do you think Esperanza denied living on Mango street?

How did Esperanza develop throughout the book?

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Vocabulary

Page 61 - limp:

lacking internal strength or structure; not stiff or firm

Page 63 - voodoo:

a religion practiced in parts of the Caribbean and the southern US, combining elements of Roman Catholic ritual with traditional African magical and religious rites, and characterized by sorcery and spirit possession.

Page 65 - cumbias:

a kind of dance music of Colombian origin, similar to salsa.

Page 65 - rancheras:

a type of Mexican country music typically played with guitars and horns.

Page 66 - brazer:

Brazer is a term referring to Mexican or Central American, migrants, (legal or illegal) popularized by chicanos from the Spanish word bracero.

Page 67 - babushka:

A headscarf tied under the chin, typical of those worn by Polish and Russian women.

Page 71 - jukebox:

A machine that automatically plays a selected musical recording when a coin is inserted.

Page 81 - nylons:

a tough, lightweight, elastic synthetic polymer with a protein-like chemical structure, able to be produced as filaments, sheets, or molded objects.

Page 81 - shawl:

a piece of fabric worn by women over the shoulders or head or wrapped around a baby.

Figurative Language:

Page 59 - I think diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, juts anyone.  (Personification)

Page 68 - The we heard someone whistling — beautiful like the Emperor’s nightingale. (Allusion? Simile)

Page 70 - The little wooden door that has wedged shut the dark for so long opens with a sigh and lets out a breath of mold and dampness , like books that have been left out in the rain. (Personification, simile)

Page 71 - [He has two black dogs that go everywhere with him.] They don’t walk like ordinary dogs, but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma. (Simile)

Page 71 - First the click and whine of the car door opening, then the scrape of concrete, the excited tinkling of dog tags, followed by the heavy jingling of keys, and finally the moan of the wooden door as it opens and lasts loose its sigh of dampness. (Intense imagery and sensory language)

Page 71 - [Mama says she is a skinny thing, blond and pale] like  salamanders that have never seen the sun. (Simile)

(Page 74 - Four raggedy excuses)

Page 74 - [The trees]grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. (Personification)

Page 75 - They’d all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around each other. (Personification, simile)

Page 81 - Sally is the girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke. (Simile, imagery)

Page 84 - She is always sad like a house on fire — always something wrong.

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This is Rafaela’s house from the vignette “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays. And that is the bag they deliver the juices in.

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Sandra Cisneros’ uses an interesting type of sections in the book, vignettes, which was not a completely foreign thing to me. In the book Wonder, the use of very short chapters that aren’t even called chapters are used. I think this makes both books a lot more powerful, because it creates more of a personal connection with all of the characters, because it doesn’t focus on one specific thing for too long. I think the vignettes were a great choice for both of these books because of how personal of a connection you have to feel in both of these books for them to be powerful.

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I will post details about this picture tomorrow during our meeting. I want it to be a surprise.

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In the last view vignettes of The House On Mango Street, we read about an overgrown garden. When I read these few passages I was heavily reminded of a certain chapter in my personal reading book. The book is called "The Enemy" by Charlie Higson. The Enemy is a apocalyptic book about kids surviving a zombie outbreak that only affects adults. In the 26th chapter they travel through a place that used to be a zoo. It was described in a very similar way as the garden. Furthermore everything in the former zoo was either dead, rotting, blooming, or bloomed.

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We will continue the discussion TOMORROW! You don’t need to write your paragraph tonight!

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“Now she draws with a needle and thread, little knotted rosebuds, tulips made of silk thread.” (90)

“She borrows opera records from the pubic library and sings with velvety lungs powerful as morning glories.” (90)

“Until the way Sally tells it, he just went crazy, he just forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt.” (93)

“And everywhere the sleepy smell of rotting wood, damp earth and dusty hollyhocks thick and perfumy like the blue-blond hair of the dead.” (95)

“There beneath the roots of soggy flowers were the bones of murdered pirates and dinosaurs, the eye of a unicorn turned to coal.” (96)

“She like looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet, the linoleum roses on the floor, the ceiling smooth as wedding cake.” (102)

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Read: Born Bad - Smart Cookie

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FOLLOW THEM!