Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Sandra Cisneros
- The House On Mango
Street
- Characters
- Sally - She is the
same age as
Esperanza and is
her friend and
hangs out with a lot
of boys. She gets
married young. She
has a really abusive,
bipolar father
- Rachel/Lucy -
Esperanza and
Magdalena
friends. They
moved from
Texas, and the
four of them go
on adventures
together.
- Esperanza - main
character, Latina. Has a big
family. She is the oldest of
her siblings. She just
moved onto Mango Street.
She doesn't have many
friends, she's lonely. Has
dreams of living in her own
house one day.
- Writing Style
- Incorporating Spanish
Words
- “Your abuelito is dead” (56).
- “...another brazen who didn't speak English” (66).
- “Esta muerto" (56).
- Similes
- “There were sunflowers big as flowers
on Mars and thick cockscombs
bleeding the deep red fringe of the
theater curtains. There were dizzy
bees and bow-tied fruit flies turning
somersaults and humming in the
air….. There were big green apples
hard as knees” (95).
- “Out front
there are
twenty one
steps, all
lopsided and
jutting like
crooked
teeth” (22).
- “The dog is big like
a man dressed in a
dog suit, and runs
the same way its
owner does, clumsy
and wild and with
the limbs flipping
all over the place
like untied shoes” (21).
- Metaphors
- “Until then
I am a red
balloon, a
balloon
tied to an
anchor” (9).
- “My aunt, a
little oyster, a
little piece of
meat on an
open shell for
us to look at” (60).
- “But in
Spanish, my
name is
made out of
a softer
something" (11).
- Theme
- Coming of Age
- "What I remember
most is Mango Street,
the house I belong
but do not belong to.
Mango says goodbye.
She does not hold me
with both arms. She
sets me free. I am too
strong for her to keep
me here forever" (110).
- Gender/Misogynisim
- Young girls are
expected to
marry and
have kids, and
males are
primarily seen
as the head of
a household.
- "She doesn't want to
spend her whole life in
a factory or behind a
rolling pin. She is
afraid of nothing
except four-legged fur.
And fathers" (32).
- Family
- "Because I an the oldest, my
father has told me first, and
now it is my turn to tell the
others. I will have to explain
why we can't play. I will
have to tell them to be quiet
today. And I think if my own
Papa died what I would do. I
hold my Papa in my arms. I
hold and hold and hold
him." (56).
- Sadness
- "He crumbles like a coat and cries, my brave
Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and
don't know what to do" (56).
- Loneliness
- "Someday I will have a best friend all my own.
One I can tell my secrets to. One who will
understand my jokes without my having to
explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a
balloon tied to an anchor" (9).
- Eleven
- Theme
- Loneliness
- "Today, I wish I was anything but eleven, because
I feel far away, far away like a runaway balloon,
like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to
close your eyes to see it" (9).
- Family
- "At home, Mama is making a
cake for me tonight, and when
Papa comes home everybody
will sing Happy Birthday, happy
birthday to you" (8).
- Sadness
- "That's when everything I've
been holding in since this
morning, since when Mrs..
Price put the sweater on my
desk, finally lets go, and all
of a sudden I'm crying in
front of everybody. I wish
I'm invisible, but I'm not. I'm
eleven and its my birthday
today and I'm crying like I'm
three in front of everybody"
(9).
- Coming of Age
- "I'm eleven today. I'm eleven, ten, nine,
eight, seven, six , five, four, three, two,
and one, but I wish I was one hundred
and two" (9).
- Characters
- Rachel - main character, is
11 years old. She is a
typical girl in school who is
sensitive and afraid to
speak up. She
understands that you are
never really just one age,
and tries to distract
herself by thinking of
home
- Mrs Price- an unfair teacher. She
forces Rachel to wear the ugly
sweater, and makes her life
miserable. Because she is older
and the teacher, she has to be
right.
- Sylvia Salvador - A bully who
makes fun of Rachel and says that
the sweater is Rachel’s. The
teacher prefers to listen to Sylvia,
rather than Rachel.
- Writing Stlye
- Descriptive Language
- “It’s an ugly sweater with red
plastic buttons and a collar
and sleeves all stretched out
like you could use it for a jump
rope. It’s maybe a thousand
years old and even if it
belonged to me I wouldn’t say
so" (7).
- “... it’s just my body
shaking like when
you have the
hiccups, and my
whole head hurts
like when you drink
milk too fast” (9).
- “... because I want today to
be far away already, far
away like a runaway
balloon, like a tiny o in the
sky, so tiny-tiny you have to
close your eyes to see it” (9).
- Repetition
- "Mama's making a
cake for me tonight,
and when papa
comes home
everybody will sing
Happy Birthday..." (8)
- "I'm eleven, ten,
nine, eight,
seven six, five,
four, three, two,
and one" (9)
- "Not mine. Not mine"(8)
- Simile
- “Because the way you
grow old is kind of like
an onion or like the
rings inside a tree
trunk or like my
wooden dolls that fit
one inside the other”
(7).
- “Only today I wish I
didn’t have only
eleven years rattling
inside me like
pennies in a tin
Band-Aid box" (7).
- “The red sweater’s
still sitting there like a
big red mountain” (8).
- Salvador Late or Early
- Writing Style
- Descriptive Language:
- “...body too small to contain the
hundred balloons of happiness, the
single guitar of grief.” (11)
- "... and nub of black sticks that tumble and spill
over and beyond the asphalt puddles until the
crossing-guard lady holds back the blur of
traffic for Salvador to collect them again"(10)
- "Salvador, inside that wrinkled shirt, inside the throat that must
clear itself and apologize each time it speaks, inside that
forty-pound body of boy..."(10)
- Metaphors
- “...where homes are
the color of bad
weather" (10).
- “Salvador with eyes the color
of caterpillar” (10).
- “...with its geography of
scars, its history of hurt,
limbs stuffed with
feathers and rags, in
what part of the eyes… in
the cage of the chest
where something throbs
with both fists...” (11).
- Figurative Language
- Simile: “Flutters in the air before
disappearing like a memory of kites”
(11).
- Simile: "...because today, like
yesterday..."(10).
- Personification/Metaphor: “Arturito has dropped the cigar
box of crayons, has let go the hundred little fingers of red,
green, yellow, blue, and nub of black sticks…” (10).
- Characters
- Salvador: He’s a nobody, and has no
friends. The teacher can’t remember
his name. He’s really sad and lonely.
No father character. Salvador acts
as a father figure for his brothers
and mother.
- Cecilio and Arturito:
Salvador's younger brothers
- Mom: busy with a baby and doesn't
pay attention to Salvador and his
brothers
- Theme
- Coming of age/Growing up
- "Shakes the sleep brothers awake, ties their
shoes, combs their hair with water, feeds them
milk and corn flakes from a tin cup in the dim
dark of the morning"(10).
- Sadness
- "Inside that body too
small to contain the
hundred balloons of
happiness, the single
gutair of grief, is a
boy like any other
disappearing out the
door" (11).
- Family
- "Salvador, late or early, sooner or later
arrives with the string of younger brothers
ready. Helps his mama, who is busy with
the business of the baby. Tugs the arms of
Cecilio, Arturito, makes them hurry..."(10).
- Loneliness
- "Salvador whose name the
teacher cannot remember, is a
boy who is no one's
friend..."(10).