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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

A Place to call Home

When twelve-year-old Mexican-American Esperanza Cordero and her family move to the house
on Mango Street, it is the first house they have ever owned. While this is a dream come true,
Esperanza is disappointed that they are still in a bad neighborhood, and that the house is run-
down and small. How will embracing culture and family help shape Esperanza’s views about
what makes a house a home?

Be a Better Reader
As you work through the study guide for The House on Mango Street, you’ll also practice these
skills, which will help you when you read collections in the future, for school assignments or just
for fun.

1. Describe how characters in a collection are developed.

2. Describe the plot development and structure of a collection.
3. Describe and analyze the role of setting in a collection.
4. Identify and analyze the themes in a collection.
5. Identify and analyze an author’s purpose and perspective.
6. Explain how historical context affects readers’ understanding and appreciation of a
collection.

Behind the Scenes

American poet and author Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago to a working-class Latino
family. Like her main character, Esperanza, Cisneros grew up in a barrio – a neighborhood
where most of the community comes from Spanish-speaking origin – but traveled back and
forth with her family to Mexico. Growing up in a Spanish-speaking household, Cisneros often
felt isolated outside of her barrio, and sought refuge in reading and writing. As an adult, she
first found fame writing poetry, and has since called the vignettes that comprise The House on
Mango Street “lazy poetry”: not quite poems and not quite stories.

While Cisneros is often heralded as a representative Latina voice, many Latino critics have
complained that her work promotes assimilation (blending in with society). Because Esperanza
wants to leave the barrio to find a better life, these critics claim that Cisneros is sending a
message to young readers that “white” society is better than Latino society. Critics have also
accused Cisneros of perpetuating negative Mexican-American stereotypes (drug pushers,
controlling husbands, and loose women, for example). Cisneros doesn’t seem phased by these
harsh critiques and remains adamant that her stories represent the truths of a young woman
growing up in a barrio: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

The Plot

Even though The House on Mango Street is a collection of vignettes and not a novel,
Esperanza’s search for identity still follows a traditional linear plot structure. What steps does
Esperanza take to figure out who she is and how she fits in society? As you read The House on
Mango Street, fill in the boxes for each element of the collection’s plot.

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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

The Characters

A multitude of vibrant characters inhabit the barrio in The House on Mango Street. Use the
following map to help keep the characters and their relationships straight. In each box, note the
character’s defining characteristics. On the line between each character, describe the
relationship they share.

Nenny Carlos & Kiki

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Papa
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Sally
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Mama
Sire Enter Text Here Tito
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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

The Setting

The House on Mango Street could only be told in one place: a Latino barrio in America. All of
the collection’s themes, conflicts, and characters are directly related to the setting.
Understanding the setting is one of the keys to understanding the collection as a whole!
Therefore, anything you notice about the barrio probably relates directly to the collection’s
themes and characters.

Use the spaces below to describe the setting of the barrio and the events that take place there.
In the first column, type or write direct quotes from the collection—phrases and sentences that
are used to show what it’s like in a barrio throughout the story. In the second column, explain
in your own words what these details show or suggest about the collection’s themes and
characters.

Direct Quote Related to Setting Your Explanation

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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Tracking Themes

What is Sandra Cisneros trying to say about identity, and why are all readers, even those not of
Mexican-American descent, able to sympathize with Esperanza’s struggles? The main themes in
The House on Mango Street are related to cultural identity and exploration. See if you can
identify and analyze those themes.

Step 1: What parts of the plot seem related to a possible theme in the collection? (Think about
the main conflict and how it get resolved or worked out.)
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Step 2: Which characters seem related to a possible theme? Which characters change, and
what do those changes suggest about cultural and personal identity?
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Step 3: How does Sandra Cisneros use symbols to hint at the collection’s themes? What objects,
people, or places stand for something “bigger” in the story?
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Step 4: What does the collection’s title suggest about the collection’s theme? Why do you think
Cisneros named her collection The House on Mango Street?
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Step 5: Write one or two of the collection’s main themes in your own words.
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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Talk About It
What do you think about Sandra Cisneros’s collection The House on Mango Street? How is
reading a collection of vignettes different than reading a novel? In the space below each
question, write an answer based on your own experiences and your own understanding of the
plot. Include some textual evidence or examples that helped you arrive at your answer.

1. Throughout The House on Mango Street, twelve-year-old Esperanza struggles to figure out
many aspects of how she fits into the world: culturally, socially, economically, sexually, and
as a female in a male-dominated world. Describe at least three scenes from the collection
that best exemplify Esperanza’s journey to discover her identity. How does the collection’s
format represent Esperanza’s struggle to puzzle all the pieces of her identity together?
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Textual Evidence:
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2. Some critics have slammed The House on Mango Street for perpetuating negative
stereotypes of Latin Americans. Describe three characters or scenes from the collection that
Latino critics might find offensive. Then, either defend the value of the scenes or explain
why the critics are right to feel culturally offended.
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Textual Evidence:
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The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Represent!

Show what you know about The House on Mango Street and its message about culture and
identity. Choose one of these projects to complete and share with your teacher, classmates,
and others.

Choice 1: Compiling Memories

When traveling to a new place, one of the best ways to preserve your thoughts and memories
is in a scrapbook. Travel scrapbooks might contain photographs, brochures, leaves, receipts,
menus, and many other objects that capture the mood and experience of a journey. The Mango
Street Library is looking for a scrapbook that represents Latino life in the barrio. Because you
have just finished reading The House on Mango Street, the library has commissioned you to
compile the scrapbook!

For this project, you may create either a physical or digital scrapbook of Esperanza’s life in the
barrio. Collect or create images, background material (such as newspaper clippings), video, and
objects you think best represent the setting, themes, characters. Compile them all into a
scrapbook that presents a cohesive representation Esperanza and her neighbors’ life in the
barrio.

If you choose to create a physical scrapbook, take photos of each scrapbook page for upload. If
you choose to create a digital scrapbook, use PowerPoint or Prezi to make the scrapbook
interactive. Remember, your “scraps” must be justified, so include a short (one-sentence)
explanation for each inclusion. If you use any outside sources, be sure to include a Works Cited
page at the end!

Choice 2: Esperanza in Action!

The producers at the Mango Street Theatre believe in the importance of representing cultural
identity on stage. As part of a cultural awareness campaign, they want to showcase the good,
the bad, and the ugly of barrio life by bringing The House on Mango Street to the stage. Since
you’ve just finished reading The House on Mango Street, you’re in a good position to advise the
Mango Street Theatre on how to adapt the collection in a way that highlights its cultural
identity.

For this project, write a script for a play based on the plot and characters of The House on
Mango Street. Include suggestions for how to design the stage and how characters should
behave. The story in your script can be simpler and shorter, but the collection’s themes should
come through in the play.

You can deliver your script as a text document, or record and upload a video of you and your
friends performing the play.