The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros



Although the stories in the book seem to wander from topic to topic, Cisneros explores themes of individual identity and community loyalty, estrangement and loss, escape and return, sexual inequality and oppression, racism, poverty, and shame.

In your response to the text, I would like you to think about some, or all, of the following ideas:

Analyze some of the following phrases and suggest what Esperanza means by them-- what the author means to tell us about Esperanza herself:

"But I know how these things go." (p.5)
"people like us"(p.13)
"We take what we can get and make the most of it."(p.33)
"Ain't it a shame"(p.66)
"Same story"(p.85)


In "Boys & Girls," Esperanza describes herself as "a balloon tied to an anchor." What are the connotations of this metaphor, and what does it tell you about Esperanza? Where else in the book does Cisneros use images and metaphors associated with the sky? What ideas do these recurring images evoke? Where else does Cisneros use related images to suggest complicated themes?

In "Boys & Girls" (8&9), Cisneros writes, "The boys and girls live in separate worlds." In "Beautiful & Cruel," there is the declaration "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain."(88). How would you describe the respective worlds in which Cisneros's boys and girls live? How would you sum up the book's depicition of relations between the sexes? Use incidents and descriptions in such stories as "My Name," "Marin," "Alicia Who Sees Mice," "Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays," "Sally," "Minerva Writes Poems," "Beautiful & Cruel," "Sally Says," and "The Monkey Garden."