1. The House On Mango Street Novel Study-
A la Schmoop

2. Sandra Cisneros Born 1954 in Chicago
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
Sandra Cisneros
Born 1954 in Chicago
Addresses issues of Hispanic American women
House on Mango Street was first novel

3. Growing Up in Chicago Born in the Hispanic Quarter of Chicago in 1954
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
Growing Up in Chicago
Born in the Hispanic Quarter of Chicago in 1954
Mexican-American (Chicana)
She was the only girl in a family of seven, and grew up in poverty
Her parents emphasized education
Her family moved often; she was shy and introverted, but connected with her community privately through writing

4. The House on Mango Street: Significance
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction M
The House on Mango Street: Significance
This is Cisneros’s first novel.
It is a way to relate her cultural identity to her life and the lives of others.
Cisneros seeks to break the cycle of defeats that women suffered due to social and religious stereotypes.
Esperanza is an outlet for the author’s views on the perceptions of women in her milieu.

5. The House on Mango Street: Structure
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
The House on Mango Street: Structure
The novel is told as a series of vignettes, 1-4 pages each
There is no real chronological plot, but a series of insights into Esperanza’s thoughts and feelings.
The vignettes show the trends in behavior in the community and provide a contrast between strength and weakness, between freedom and bondage.
The novel is dedicated A Las Mujeres, To the Women.

6. The House on Mango Street: Narrator
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
The House on Mango Street: Narrator
The work is narrated by Esperanza Cordero, thirteen, a Chicana girl in Chicago.
Although told in the voice of a young girl, it addresses mature subject matter.
In English, Esperanza means hope, and also, waiting.
This choice of name is significant in the novel: the character and her independence represent a way out of the slums.
As she watches her neighborhood, she decides that she will not become like the women she knows, trapped and powerless in a man’s world.

7. Essential Theme Questions
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
Essential Theme Questions
How does environment shape our identity?
What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change?
What roles do neighborhood and community play in shaping who we become?

8. House on Mango Street Themes
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
House on Mango Street Themes
Identity
Community / Neighborhood
Freedom / Growth
Fitting In
Coming of Age
Home / Belonging

9. The House on Mango Street: Characters
Novel Study Unit Day 1- Novel Introduction
The House on Mango Street: Characters
Alicia, the medical student who is still bound to her old fears.
Marin, who waits.
Beautiful Rafaela, the modern-day Rapunzel.
Rosa Vargas, with too many children, crying for the husband who left.
Mamacita, who dreams of the pink house she left behind and refuses to speak English.
Sally, the subject of abuse until she marries, to escape, before eighth grade, and moves from Mango Street into into another sort of trap.
And then there is Esperanza, who is like the skinny trees outside her tiny window, who longs for a house all her own, who starts her own quiet war.