The House on Mango Street Study Guide

The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Author:
Original title:
The House on Mango Street
Published:
Published April 3rd 2009 by Vintage (first published 1984)
Setting:
Chicago, Illinois(United States)
ISBN 0679734775 (ISBN13: 9780679734772)

Sandra Cisneros wrote “The House on Mango Street” in 1984. Even though many of you already imagine a nice house on a calm and pretty Mango Street – the book is nothing like that. The book is a compilation of colorful characters each of whom encounters the poverty, exile, humiliation, shame, restrictions and hard work.

The protagonist of the book is a young girl Esperanza Cordero who grows up in a poor Latin neighborhood. She is determined to leave behind her Hispanic friends and find a better life somewhere else. But she promises herself that once she made it in life, she will return and get her friends out as well.

The honesty of the girl is striking. She dares to open up about her expectations, fears, and weaknesses. She tells the readers how she used to lie about being poor, pretending to live in a different place, hides her clothes and tries to seem somebody she actually isn’t. The girl tells about the aggression she met in life, both sexual and physical.

She isn’t alone in her troubles, there are other girls at school who just like Esperanza suffer from abuse, beating at home and having no prospects in life. Esperanza is fortunate to have a mother who taught her not to rely on men and not to wait for good things to happen. She takes her things and leaves in pursuit of a better life.

The style of the book is unexpected. Instead of a plain narrative, the author employs vignettes that are somewhat like poems. The plot changes quickly from one idea to the other and reminds a distracted mind of a teenager. Explore a novel that is pleasant to read and also motivational to observe a great personal progress of a character.

New Essays

House on Mango Street (Male Dominance)

A prince and a princess unite to create the dream; however the dream is controlled by the prince that has an eye to dominate the dream of the woman. The Women who have became stronger through years still turn towards fairy tales to receive answers. They want their lives to become a fairy tale, and...

House on Mango Street

In the House On Mango Street, Esperanza Cordero is such an inspiring character seeing as she shows the ways in which change can alter your life. Because the story is told by her, the most developed character, the reader experiences her growth along with her, which is why there is such a contrast...

Research on House on Mango Street

Kiarra Bailey English 2/5/2012 Unit 5 Activity: Researching The House on Mango Street What was going on in Chicago in the late 60's and early 70's? -High-rise apartments and skyscraper construction was booming. The Chase Tower (First National Bank) on Daley Plaza was one of the first, which was...

The House on Mango Street Writing Project

Male/Female gender roles (Minerva, Sally, Rafaela, Mamacita, Linoleum Roses) The House on Mango Street Writing Project The book called House on Mango street is about a little girl that grows up in a poor naeberhood that is full of crime and violence. I think that having a male gender in the place...

See all essays