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Submit jobs on time (preferably the day before)
Know what your job is for the week so there are no mix-ups
Don’t talk over other people, no matter how important your opinion is, because everyone’s opinion matters.
Try to keep the noise down so we don’t disturb other groups
Treat everyone equally as a member
Keep boxes white

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Come up with 2 meaningful questions to spark discussion. Help to moderate the discussion and make sure that everyone has a chance to share.

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Question 1: When the nun says “You live there?” how does Esparanza feel? Why does this make her feel like nothing? And why would the nun say that?

Question 2: These 12 vignettes have been about different things. Houses, friends, and family. How do all of these vignettes connect together? How do they move the story along?

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Listen, I’m extra and I felt like doing three questions. Sue me

Question 1:
There seems to be a motif, or recurring scene, in this story on pages 5 and 45. What is it and do you think the theme behind this motif is?

Question 2: Why do you think Esperanza lied to the nun when she asked where her house was? What does this tell us about her mindset?

Question 3: If you had the option to eat in the canteen or at home, which would you choose? Why?

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1. In Cisneros’ vignette, “Four Skinny Trees” why do you think she said “They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them.” Why does she understand a tree and why do they understand her and do you think that this vignette was just to talk about the trees or was it something more meaningful?

2. In the very beginning of the book, it was cheerful and hopeful. On page 88, the vignette being “Beautiful and Cruel” that completely changed. The vignette starts with “I am an ugly daughter. I am the one nobody comes for.” Why do you think she did this? What do you think happened to make her write that?

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Q#1 In the vignette, “the monkey garden” there was a monkey who used to live in a garden, but it lived in a cage. In this vignette, Cisneros described how it escaped and moved to Kentucky. How do you think this relates to Esperanza and how she feels moving here?

Q#2 Throughout these vignettes, I noticed something about Esperanza’s mental stability. Not as in her going crazy, but her getting depressed with her environment. How do you think she is feeling during this time in her life, why so?

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Find 5 interesting words that you either thought were meaningful to the story or that you didn’t know. Provide a definition for each word in your own words. Remember to add the page number and which vignette(s) you got the word(s) from!

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Rosette - a rosed shaped design or arrangement
Barrette - a bar shaped design used for the hair
Anchor - a physical or emotional weight that ties you down, so you can’t move
Crooked - twisted out of the original shape
Tarred - covered with tar

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Clouds: a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground. (Page 36)
Canteen: a restaurant provided by an organization such as a military camp, college, factory, or company for its soldiers, students, staff, etc. (Page 43)
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. (Page 47)
Disease: a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people. (Page 59)
Vagrant(The emoji keeps popping up): a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging. (Page 41)

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Brazer: a person who does welding; however, in the context of the sentence “Just another brazer who doesn’t speak English”, I think it is being used to describe a person lacking smarts or talent, or someone unimportant. (Pg. 66)

Pitching pennies: a game in which you gamble to see who can throw a penny closest to a wall or other marker. I think this game symbolizes the tendencies of the people living on Mango Street. Gambling is associated with a loss of money, so it further proves the point that this neighborhood is full of poor people. (Pg. 72)

I will admit, past here I was having some trouble finding interesting words, so I opted to find important words and explain why they were meaningful instead.

Trees: I think Cisneros wrote a whole vignette about trees because they both have the characteristics that Esperanza shares, such as being skinny and “Do not belong here but are here”, and characteristics that she would like to have. The book states “They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they go down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger.” I think Esperanza wishes she was as secure as the trees. (Pg. 74)

Stuck-up: I think this word is the embodiment of a larger problem: racism. Being stuck-up means you think you are better than someone else, and racism is exactly the same. (Pg. 86)

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1. “Somebody” -a person of importance or authority. (page 90)

I chose this word because, though it is a word that everyone knows, there’s a deeper meaning to it here. That’s why Esperanza wants to be. Someone, she feels like a nobody. There’s two different types of meanings for somebody, there’s either literally just someone, or there’s another definition which I stated above a person of importance or authority. That’s what Esperanza wants to be. A person of importance because she feels like she’s nobody.

2. Twangy- A strongly nasal tone of voice, especially as a peculiarity of certain regional dialects. (Page 94)

3. Ashamed- embarrassed or guilty because of one's actions, characteristics, or associations.

(Page 94)

I chose this word because I feel like this emotion was a very common or a recurring theme in all these vignettes. I feel like it was either her or just feeling sad or a sense of unimportance or feeling ashamed. I think she was just very self-conscious about herself and couldn’t get over that and that’s why the feeling of being ashamed was a very common theme.

4. Liar- a person who tells lies. (Page 100)

This definition was very straightforward because there is not much to say about a liar but the reason I chose this word was because this was something she said a lot or maybe she just had no trust in anyone. “Why did you leave me all alone? I waited my whole life. You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines, everything that told it wrong.” Even from this passage alone showed how far trusting people got her, it wasn’t very far.

5. Escape- break free from confinement or control. (Page 101)

I chose this word because I feel like this is something that Esperanza always wanted to do. Even if it was not literally escaping, I think she wanted to escape reality. I think she wanted to go to a place where it was safe and she could be herself without feeling ashamed, where she didn’t have to worry about people lying to her or getting betrayed. She just wants to get away from reality, she doesn’t want to accept it. She just wants to live a calm peaceful life.

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Find or create a piece of media that represents something you read about or an underlying theme in the story, i.e. drawing, picture

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Here is my drawing for week one.

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This is my drawing of the 4 skinny trees. These were the trees placed outside of Esparanza’s house. I know it’s bad but it was my first time using Adobe Fresco and I have no artistic talent. I hope you like it.

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Ik it’s bad… DON’T say it looks like Shalini’s. I had this idea before that 

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I chose to draw the silhouette of Esperanza with the backdrop of a blurry garden. The garden represents the “Monkey garden”, which I included because is supports the theme of Esperanza feeling like she isn’t wanted. After she is scrutinized by Sally and Tito, she says “They all looked at me as if I were the one that was crazy and made me feel ashamed.“ The green cage Esperanza is placing her hand on represents (literally) the monkey’s old cage, but metaphorically, symbolizes the way she feels separate from everyone else, as if she were a totally different species. The kind of swirling effect in the backdrop references the Tilt-A-Whirl in “Red Clowns”. The scribbles inside her shadow are supposed to describe her mixed feelings; she doesn’t feel like she belongs, but wishes she did. There is also another way to interpret the hand she is holding up; what I originally was trying to do was make it look like she was saying goodbye to the garden to reference the vignette “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes”, but it unintentionally looks like she is placing her hand on the bars of the cage, which also works :)

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Find 2 sentences that you think are worthy of being a mentor text and explain why the rhythm, use of punctuation, literary devices or anything else makes this sentence pop out.

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“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 thought we’d get.” (Pg. 3)

I chose these sentences because they are very descriptive. It paints a whole picture in your head of the beginning of the story, and, if I’m being honest, I think it could have been the opening lines.

“But me and Nenny, we are more alike than you could know. Our laughter for example. 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.” (Pg. 17)

The way she chose to break up these sentences is (formally) grammatically incorrect, but it keeps the flow smooth. If she were to write it like this instead: “Nenny and I are more alike than you could know. Our laughter, for example, is not the shy ice cream bells’ giggle of Rachel and Lucy’s family, but sudden and surprised like a pile of dishes breaking.” It just wouldn’t sound as good. Like this, it sounds more like an informational text, while the original form sounds more like a narration, which is probably what Cisneros was going for.

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“Descended like white pigeons from the sea of pillow, across the linoleum roses, down down the wooden stairs, over the chalk hopscotch squares, 5, 6, 7, blue sky.” (Vignette “The Family of Little Feet” page 40)

I chose this as sentence because the imagery is very rich and detailed. You can really see the scene she described, the scene seems serene and very calming. Something unusual is how many commas she used in one sentence. She did make it all into one sentence but 7 commas in a 28 word sentence is a lot.

“My papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed” (Vignette: “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark” page 57)

I chose this sentence because to me it sounded like Cisneros put a lot of emotion into this sentence, she was telling a story, but was able to write it so seamlessly. This was also another instance of her using many commas, which I think is just part of her writing style. There was also great imagery in this sentence as well.

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(Vignette “Edna’s Ruthie” Page 67) “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 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 laugh.”

This paragraph was extremely descriptive and over flowing with detail on the character Ruthie. I was impressed by how Cisneros described her. The flow of the sentences, the personality of her, the details all fit together like a puzzle making this sentence a piece of art. The way Cisneros writes it makes it so lively, something that many authors wouldn’t be able to do. The imagery she puts into my mind when I read this sentence is unquestionably stunning, as if I’m seeing the person with my own eyes.

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“The monkey doesn’t live here anymore. The monkey moved, to Kentucky, and took his people with him.” (I put commas for a reason).

This sentence touched me, because it talks about how the monkey left, and took his people with him. This sentence means how when they all left, so did their spirit and similar to how Esparanza says it, the house.

“You will always be Esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are.”

Wow. This small paragraph was one of the most important in the entire book to me. It means that no matter how much you don’t like yourself, you are still that person. And no matter how much you don’t like Mango street, it is still a part of your life. Everything that you don’t and didn’t like is still a part of your life.