Name: Aadit Gupta

Important Objects - The House on Mango Street

1) Decide 3-5 important objects in the text and create a drawing (or find a picture) for each and label each for
clarity. Adding colour and extra detail may need to be done outside of class. Write a short sentence to
indicate how characters feel/react to each object (ie: The Greasers desire a blue mustang)

Drawing Label
The house in which
Esperanza and her
family live.

Feelings/Reactions: The house which Esperanza lives in symbolises confinement

and dreams of a family. In the book, we read about how Esperanza feels very
confined living in a house, as she is living with 3 siblings and her parents. She
mentions how her father promised her to one day buy a house with good furniture,
backyard and other facilities, so that they can live a better life, but the house on
mango street turns out to be the opposite of how she thought it would be.

Esperanza, Lucy,
and Rachel all
wanted the bike.

Feelings/Reactions:

The characters were very happy to get the bike and had trouble deciding who would
get to ride it first. They eventually decided on the order of who owns the bike but
shared it on the first day because they were all eager to ride the bike.
 The high heels the
girls wore

Feelings/Reactions:

The high heels made the girls feel all grown up and mature. This is shown when
Benny the store owner tells them that girls of their age should not wear them. At first
the girls feel grown up and mature as mentioned above, they also start to gain a lot of
confidence which is shown when they strut around town with the high heels.

Esperanza desired to
eat in the canteen

Feelings/Reactions:

The canteen symbolises the human nature of wanting something that others have. In
this vignette, the character Esperanza, wants something that she does not have: to
go and eat in the canteen, like all the other ‘special kids’.

Feelings/Reactions:

2) Next, record your definition of what "symbolism" is to you.

Symbolism: Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent any idea or a meaning of text

3) Now consider what each object might represent and check to see if your idea makes sense by
replacing the object with the idea (ie: The Greasers desire wealth)
 Esperanza desires freedom and power over her decisions.

Esperanza wore maturity on her feet.

The confined space in which Esperanza and her family live.

The desire to want something that others have but you don't.

4) Could any of these objects be considered "universal symbols" (symbols that appear in multiple
cultures/times with the same meaning) or are they unique to this story? Explain.

I think that high heels are the only one that can be considered a “universal symbol” because a majority of the
world believes that high heels are a symbol of maturity. They are usually worn by young adults or adults which
has given it that sort of mature feel. The bicycle is more of a personal symbol because while some people do
see bikes and riding them as a symbol of freedom, they are not recognized as such by the whole world. The
house is definitely a personal symbol because there are very few people that feel they are trapped or confined
in their house. The canteen is also a personal symbol as one with high economic status might not see it as
something they would desire to attain but the ones with low economic status, like Esperanza from this book,
might.

5) Reflect on how comfortable you currently are at identifying symbols in stories.

Very Comfortable // Somewhat Comfortable // Not Yet Comfortable