Sandra Cisneros

The House On Mango Street
1. Characters
  1. 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
  2. Rachel/Lucy - Esperanza and Magdalena friends. They moved from Texas, and the four of them go on adventures together.
  3. 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.
2. Writing Style
  1. Incorporating Spanish Words
    1. “Your abuelito is dead” (56).
    2. “...another brazen who didn't speak English” (66).
    3. “Esta muerto" (56).
  2. Similes
    1. “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).
    2. “Out front there are twenty one steps, all lopsided and jutting like crooked teeth” (22).
    3. “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).
  3. Metaphors
    1. “Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (9).
    2. “My aunt, a little oyster, a little piece of meat on an open shell for us to look at” (60).
    3. “But in Spanish, my name is made out of a softer something" (11).
3. Theme
  1. Coming of Age
    1. "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).
  2. Gender/Misogynisim
    1. Young girls are expected to marry and have kids, and males are primarily seen as the head of a household.
    2. "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).
  3. Family
    1. "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).
  4. Sadness
    1. "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).
  5. Loneliness
    1. "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
1. Theme
  1. Loneliness
    1. "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).
  2. Family
    1. "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).
  3. Sadness
    1. "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).
  4. Coming of Age
    1. "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).
2. Characters
  1. 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
3. Writing Stlye
  1. Descriptive Language
    1. “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).
    2. “... 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).
    3. “... 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).
  2. Repetition
    1. "Mama's making a cake for me tonight, and when papa comes home everybody will sing Happy Birthday..." (8)
    2. "I'm eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven six, five, four, three, two, and one" (9)
    3. "Not mine. Not mine"(8)
  3. Simile
    1. “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).
    2. “Only today I wish I didn’t have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box" (7).
    3. “The red sweater’s still sitting there like a big red mountain” (8).
Salvador Late or Early
1. Writing Style
  1. Descriptive Language:
    1. “...body too small to contain the hundred balloons of happiness, the single guitar of grief.” (11)
    2. "... 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)
    3. "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)
  2. Metaphors
    1. “...where homes are the color of bad weather" (10).
    2. “Salvador with eyes the color of caterpillar” (10).
    3. “...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).
  3. Figurative Language
    1. Simile: “Flutters in the air before disappearing like a memory of kites” (11).
    2. Simile: "...because today, like yesterday..."(10).
    3. 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).
2. Characters
  1. 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.
  2. Cecilio and Arturito: Salvador's younger brothers
  3. Mom: busy with a baby and doesn't pay attention to Salvador and his brothers
3. Theme
  1. Coming of age/Growing up
    1. "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).
  2. Sadness
    1. "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).
  3. Family
    1. "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).
  4. Loneliness
    1. "Salvador whose name the teacher cannot remember, is a boy who is no one's friend..."(10).

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