Excerpts from Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street
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http://www.teatrovision.org/english/img/House-on-mango.jpg
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Sandra Cisneros (1954– ) spent her childhood moving back and forth between Chicago, where she was born, and Mexico, where her father was born.
Cisneros’s first full-length work, The House on Mango Street, appeared in 1984. The narrator of this series of connected stories is a lively and thoughtful girl named Esperanza. (Her name means “hope” in Spanish.) |
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Read “My Name,” the fourth vignette from House
on Mango Street. As you read “My Name,” note the
following about both the vignette and Bean Trees:
- both stories include the name Esperanza
- both stories include protagonists who want to rename themselves
- remember the evolution of Turtle’s name (later becomes
April Turtle Two Two)
- consider the idea that people change their names to assimilate
into other cultures
(If story link above does not work, click here.)
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Read the “Geraldo No Last Name” vignette from House
on Mango Street. As you read the excerpt note the
following about both the vignette and Bean Trees:
both stories include illegal immigrants without identification, last names
characters in each story come to the U.S. in search of opportunities yet they remain deeply rooted, invested in their home countries
(If story link above does not work, click here.)
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Choose one of the following to respond to in the discussion board:
In My Name, what is similar between the voice of Esperanza of Mango Street and Taylor of The Bean Trees?
Exactly what do you know about the character of Geraldo? What inferences, or guesses, can you make about the kind of person he was?
Cisneros uses many short sentences and sentence fragments in her story. How does this aspect of her style contribute to the story’s impact?
In Geraldo, in just a few broad strokes, Cisneros sketches two characters and one tragic event. How would you express the theme, or central idea, of this very short story?
Respond to one (or two) students.
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