The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros is a novelist, poet, short story

writer, and essayist whose work gives voice to working-class Latino and Latina life in America. Her lyrical, realistic work blends aspects of "high" and popular culture. 

In 1995 Cisneros was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and subsequently organized the Latino MacArthur Fellows, Los MacArturos, into a reunion focusing on community outreach. Most recently she was awarded the Texas Medal of the Arts, 2003.

About the Author

Like Esperanza Cordero, the protagonist of The

House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros grew up poor in Chicago.

The only daughter among seven children in a household headed by a Mexican father and a Mexican American mother, Cisceros began writing at a young age.

Scholarships enables her to attend Loyola University in Chicago and later the prestigious University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.

How the story was born:

She was shy and self-conscious about her writing ability.

The fact that houses symbolize the inner self in literature made her worry because she was too ashamed to talk or write about her own house, especially around the privileged people at the writer’s workshop.

If houses represented the soul, and she was too ashamed to speak of her house, could she be a real writer?

Ironically, this experience led Cisneros to write about where she came from, and eventually she realized that her poverty-stricken past had given her writing a truly distinct voice.

This insight led her to work on The House on Mango Street which was first published in 1984 by Arte Publico Press.

Setting - CHICAGO• Neighborhood: Humboldt Park in NW Chicago• Population: mainly Puerto Rican but from the

1960s onward an increasing number of Mexican immigrants joined community.

• By 1980 Mexicans represented almost one-third of Humboldt Park's 29,000 Latinos

The Real House on Mango Street

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1524 North Campbell Avenue

Culture: Chicanos

A book about a culture—that of Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans—that has long been veiled by demeaning stereotypes and afflicted by internal ambivalence. Chicanos have been excluded from the American mainstream. Cisneros uses language as a recurring metaphor for the gulf between Mexican-Americans and the majority culture, but what keeps Esperanza Cordero and her family and friends locked in their barrio is something more than just language: 1. racism 2. poverty 3. shameThe ancestors of many Chicanos did not come to the United States by choice, but simply found themselves in alien territory as a result of the U.S.'s expansionist policy into country that had once been Mexican. 

Format

“to tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole—like beads in a necklace.” ~Cisneros

Vignette – A brief, evocative description, account, or episode

Reading as a Class

Open your books to page 6, the vignette “Hairs”

I need 4 volunteers to take turns reading each paragraph.

In the vignette “Hairs,” Sandra Cisneros reveals a lot about the narrator’s family, especially her mother, through a discussion of one physical trait: hair. Her first paragraph describes the hair of the narrator’s father and the hair of her siblings, using those descriptions to give the reader insight into each of their personalities. Cisneros also reveals the narrator’s feelings towards her mother in the passage, using a variety of stylistic devices to achieve this effect. Let’s explore some of these stylistic devices

Literary Terms

Style

the distinctive way in which a writer uses language, from how he/she puts sentences together to his/her choice of vocabulary and use of literary devices.

Synecdoche the act of using a part to

describe the whole

Example: In the vignette “Hairs,” Sandra Cisneros reveals a lot about the narrator’s family, especially her mother, through a discussion of one physical trait: hair.

Metaphors and Similes

Metaphor a comparison between

two things that are basically dissimilar in which one thing becomes another.

Example: “But my mother’s hair…is the warm smell of bread before you bake it.”

Simile a comparison between

two things that are basically dissimilar using “like” or “as” to make the comparison.

Example: “My papa’s hair is like a broom.”

Personification and Sensory details

Personification

the act of giving human qualities to something that is not human/inanimate.

Example: “And me, my hair is lazy.”

Sensory details images and/or details that

emphasize our senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) to recreate a scene for the reader

Example: “The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.”

Alliteration and Repetition

Alliteration the repetition of similar

consonant sounds within a phrase or sentence.

Example: “It is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin. 

Repetition

the act of repeating words or phrases for dramatic effect

Example: In “Hairs,” the words “hair,” “holding you,” and “rain” are repeated.

Let’s try it on our own

Using “Hairs” as a model, write a vignette about your own life that discusses an important physical trait and how it reveals something about the person who possesses it and your relationship to him/her. You may choose to discuss a trait that all of you share, or one that makes a particular family member—or you—stand out from the others because it is different. You must incorporate at least three stylistic devices in your vignette.

Think about the people in your own family, the characteristics you share with them and those which make them (and you) distinctive. Decide which physical trait you would like to write about. Is the trait one you share with your family or yours alone? How might you present your piece with metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, repetition, and sensory details?

BildungsromanGerman for "formation novel“

A genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood

A Coming of Age Novel

Growing up: Let’s trace Esperanza’s maturity process

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Vignette 1: “Boys and Girls”Vignette 2: “The Family of Little Feet”

Vignette 3: “Chanclas”Vignette 4: “Hips”

Vignette 5: “The 1st Job”Vignette 6: “The Monkey Garden”

Vignette 7: “Red Clowns”

Theme: What is it?

• Message or lesson the author wants the reader to learn

• Must be a universal lesson (can be applied to everyone’s life, not just the particular

characters in the particular book).

• Must be a complete thought/sentence

Formula: Sometimes (fill in the blank) a person (fill in the blank) because/for/in order to/so that (fill in the blank).

Example from The Hunger Games:Sometimes when placed in a difficult situation, a person must make a self-sacrificing choice for the betterment of others.

How do I articulate a work’s theme?

- Title of work- The House on Mango Street (3-5).- Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water (62-64).- Bums in the Attic (86-87).- The 3 Sisters – Mango Says Goodbye

Sometimes (103-110).

Let’s Read and Make Some Inferences

Sometimes

a person

because/for/in order to/so that