“You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines, everything that told it wrong.

Only his
dirty fingernails against my skin, only his sour smell again. The moon that watched. The tilt-a-
whirl. The red clowns laughing their thick-tongue laugh.” (100)
This quote is from the section Red clowns where Esperanza goes with Sally to the carnaval.
Sally leaves with a boy and tells Esperanza to wait, she would be back. However, Sally doesn’t
come back anytime soon and Esperanza ends up getting sexually assaulted by a group of boys.
After this happens she is seen blaming everyone but the boys who attacked her as she calls
Sally and the magazines liars. This is because Esperanza believes that women should look out
for each other, as seen in previous chapters where Esperanza sticks up for Sally when the boys
are messing with Sally in the Monkey Garden. However, as seen in the Monkey Garden when
Sally laughed at Esperanza for trying to help her, Esperanza is the only one in society who
thinks women should help each other out. Everyone else in Mango Street has given up, allowing
the men to control the women. This may even be true for Esperanza as she never blames the
boys (maybe because society normalized it or she is scared). Esperanza’s feelings are
portrayed through things like the moon and red clowns are being personified. The moon is
personified as watching her, giving the sense that she is helpless and feels like no one cares
and the red clowns are described as laughing, which may be due to her feeling embarrassed
and scared.