ELA : THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET

Carlos

Esperanza's brother

And Some More

A conversation about clouds between Esperanza, Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel turns into a fight.Esperanza knows two names: cumulus and nimbus. She is concerned with the actual names, while Nenny makes up lists of everyday names, such as Lisa and Ted. Nenny does this throughout the story and refuses to respond to her sister or to her friends while they are fighting.One of the girls says Esperanza has an ugly fat face, and after this the girls playfully exchange creative insults.

The Monkey Garden

A family with a pet monkey moves away, and the neighborhood kids take over the garden behind their house. The garden quickly becomes a dump for old cars and other trash, but to the children it is a magical place where anything is possible.Esperanza wants to run around with the boys, but Sally stays to the side. She does not like to get her stockings dirty, and she plays a more grown-up game by talking to the boys.Tito, a neighborhood boy, steals Sally's keys, and he and his friends tell her that she has to kiss all of them to get them back. Sally agrees, and they go behind an old car. Esperanza wants to save Sally from being exploited this way, so she runs to tell Tito's mother what the boys are doing.Arming herself with a brick, she confronts the boys. Sally and the boys laugh at her and tell her to go away. Esperanza hides beneath a tree and tries to will her heart to stop. When she finally gets up she looks at her feet, which look clunky and unfamiliar. The garden seems unfamiliar too.

Alicia who Sees Mice

Alicia is a neighborhood girl whose mother has died. She must do all the cooking and cleaning for her father. Alicia is also trying to attend college, traveling far on public transportation every day so she can escape a life of domestic toil. She stays up all night studying and thus sees the mice that come out at night. Her father gives her a hard time about her studies. He says the mice don't exist and that a woman's job is to get up early to make tortillas for her younger siblings' lunches.

The House On Mango Street

Before Mama,Papa,Carlos,Kiki, Nenny and Esperanza moved to the house on Mango st. , they lived in Loomis on the third floor but the current house they moved in wasn't what she expected.Esperanza and her family wouldn't think their first house would be a small and red with tight steps in front and windows that are extremely small.She was embarrassed about her new home.

Cathy Queen of Cats

Cathy is a cat lady and likes all types of cats.Benny and Blanca own the corner store.Alicia is stuck-up ever since she went to college.Edna is the woman who owns the building next to you.She used to own a big building but her brother sold it. Her mother told never to sell it though.

The Earl of Tennessee

Earl lives next door in Edna's basement.Earl works night and in the day his blinds are always closed.Sometimes he comes out and tells them to be quiet.Earl has 2 dogs that don't walk normally but leaps and somersaults.He's a jukebox repairman and learned his trade in the south he says . The word is that Earl is married and has a wife somewhere.Edna says she saw her once.Mama said she is a skinny thing , blond and pale.And the boys across the street says she is a tall red headed lady with pink tights and green glasses.They never agree on what she looks like , but they know whenever she comes they walk fast into their apartment , lock the door and never stay long.

Elenita , Cards , Palm , Water

Ernie who was feeding the baby, spilled kool-aid all over the table.Elenita,witch woman, had to clean up. Esperanza goes to the sink and gets the only clean glass there.Elenita taught Esperanza to fill it up with hot tap water .Elenita asks if she saw faces in it but she doesn't.Then they make the sign of the cross over the water, and begins to cut the cards.She said " Los espiritus are here".All of this for $5.

Four Skinny Trees

Esperanza compares herself to the trees outside her house. She thinks that both she and the trees do not belong in the barrio, but are stuck there anyway. Both she and they have secret strength and anger. The trees teach her not to forget her reason for being. They inspire her because they have grown despite the concrete that tries to keep them in the ground.

Darius & the Clouds

Esperanza complains about living in the inner city, saying there is not enough sky or flowers or butterflies. Yet the children in the neighborhood make the best of what they have. One day, when the sky is full of puffy clouds that everyone is admiring, Darius, a boy Esperanza doesn't like because he tries to be tough, says something Esperanza finds wise: he looks up at a particular cloud and calls it God.

Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes

Esperanza defines herself as a storyteller. She frames the story by saying she is going to tell the audience a story about a girl who did not want to belong. She repeats the paragraph from the first chapter about having not always lived on Mango Street, naming the other streets she has lived on. The house on Mango Street is the one she remembers the most. When she writes about it, she is able to free herself from the house's grip. She knows that one day she will pack her books and writing materials and leave Mango Street, but she will have left only to come back for the others who cannot get out on their own.

Born Bad

Esperanza explains she was born on a bad day and her mother prays for her.Lucy,Rachael pray too for each other because of what they did to Aunt Lupe.Her aunt was sick from the disease that wouldn't go away.Before she was dark, nice to look at like her mother.In her Joan Crawford dress and swimmer's legs.She describes how she imitated Aunt Lupe and how she used to have baby Totchy and baby Frank.But she died, and they are sad because of it.

Laughter

Esperanza explains that although she and Nenny do not look alike as Lucy and Rachel do, they do have a lot in common. They laugh in the same, loud way, and sometimes they have the same ideas. One day Esperanza sees a house that reminds her of houses in Mexico, although she can't say exactly why. Rachel and Lucy laugh at her, but Nenny tells them she was thinking the same thing as Esperanza

Red Clowns

Esperanza goes to a carnival with Sally and that she enjoys watching Sally on the rides. Sally seems careless and free, and at one point she disappears with an older boy. While Esperanza waits for Sally to return, a group of non-Latino boys attacks Esperanza. The event is nothing like sexual encounters Esperanza has seen in the movies or read in magazines, or even like what Sally has told her. She is traumatized and keeps hearing the voice of one of the boys saying mockingly, "I love you, Spanish girl." She blames Sally for abandoning her and not being there to save her.

The Family of Little Feet

Esperanza imagines a family of people with tiny, plump feet. Her description of the fairy-tale family merges into an account of a day when a woman gives her, Nenny, Rachel, and Lucy some old pairs of high-heeled shoes that happen to fit their small feet perfectly. The girls are amazed at these shoes because when they put them on, they suddenly have attractive, womanly legs. Some of their male neighbors warn them that such suggestive shoes are not meant for little girls, but the girls ignore them.The shoes cause a flirtation between Rachel and a drunken bum. He asks her to kiss him for a dollar. Frightened, Lucy leads the girls back to Mango Street. They hide the shoes on Rachel and Lucy's porch, and later Rachel and Lucy's mother throws them away. The girls are glad the shoes are gone.

Alicia and I talking on Edna's Steps

Esperanza is jealous of Alicia because she has a town to call home, Guadalajara, and she will return there someday. Alicia observes that Esperanza already has a home. The girls laugh because the idea of the mayor coming to Mango Street is so far outside the realm of possibility.

Our Good Day

Esperanza sacrifices her friendship with Cathy by pitching in for a bike that she will share with her two new friends, Lucy and Rachel. Esperanza is embarrassed to tell her new friends her name, but they don't laugh at it or find it unusual. Esperanza knows she eventually must share her friends and bike with her sister Nenny, since she took money from Nenny to help pay for the bike, but for now, she decides to wait and keep her new friends to herself.

Papa Who Wakes Up Tired In The Dark

Esperanza saw her father and now knows that her abuelito died.She knows that her papa will have to go to Mexico and have a black and white photo in front of the tomb.Since she is the oldest , she will have to break the news to her siblings.She holds her papa tight.

Those Who Don't

Esperanza says that people "who don't know any better" think her neighborhood is dangerous, and that if they find themselves in it at night, they fear they'll get stabbed. Esperanza and her friends are never scared in the neighborhood, since they know the people outsiders might find frightening, including the man with the crooked eye, the tall intimidating man in the hat, and a large retarded man. However, Esperanza notes that when she enters a non-Chicano ethnic neighborhood, she gets scared.

A House Of My Own

Esperanza thinks about the house she will live in , not an apartment,not a man's house , not her daddy's house but a house of her own.A space she shares with herself.

Bums in the Attic

Esperanza wants a nice suburban house with a garden, like the ones where her father works. On the weekends, the family visits these houses and dreams about moving there. Esperanza has stopped going with her family. She, too, would like to live in one of those houses, but she is tired of looking at what she cannot have. She imagines that when she owns one of these houses in the future, she will not forget where she is from.When bums pass her house she will invite them in and give them a place to live in her attic, because she knows, she says, "how it is to be without a house."

The First Job

Esperanza went to the social security office the month before to get a social security number to apply for a job to get into a catholic high school.Her father said nobody went to public school unless they wanted to turn out bad.

Beautiful and Cruel

Esperanza worries that she is unattractive and that her looks will leave her stuck at home. Esperanza's mother comforts Esperanza by saying she will be more beautiful as she gets older, but Esperanza has decided not to wait around for a husband to take her away. Instead, she wants to be like the femme fatales in movies who drive the men crazy and then refuse them. These women do not give their power away. Esperanza's way of beginning to be like this is to leave the dinner table like a man, without pushing in her chair or doing her dishes.

Papa

Esperanza's father

Mama

Esperanza's mother

A Smart Cookie

Esperanza's mother complains that she could have done something with her life. She has many skills—she can speak two languages, sing, draw, and fix a television—but she does not know how to use the subway. While making a family meal, Esperanza's mother sings along to a Madame Butterfly record she has borrowed from the public library. She tells Esperanza that she needs to be able to take care of herself and not just rely on a man. Then she describes how when she was younger she dropped out of school, not because she lacked intelligence, but because she was ashamed about not having nice clothes. She seems disgusted with her young self and tells Esperanza not to be like she was.

Kiki

Esperanza's sister

Nenny

Esperanza's sister

Hairs

How she described that her family's hair is all different. Her Papa's hair is like a broom; her Mama's hair is like candy circle all curly and pretty that also smells like bread; Carlos' hair is thick and straight; Nenny's hair is slippery; Kiki's hair is like fur; and her hair is lazy.

Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold

In Esperanza's neighborhood, an old black man runs a junk store, and he doesn't turn on the lights unless he knows his customers have money. Esperanza and Nenny wander around the store in the dark. The store is labyrinthine and full of mysterious items, as well as piles of broken televisions. Esperanza is afraid to talk to the owner and only does so when she buys a little Statue of Liberty. Nenny is not intimidated by him, and one day she asks him about a wooden box in the shop. It is a music box, and the man plays it for them. Nenny tries to buy the box, but the man tells her it's not for sale.

Marin

Louie's cousin Marin has a boyfriend in Puerto Rico whom she plans to marry when she goes back. At the same time, she hopes to stay in Chicago next year so she can get a job downtown. She tells Esperanza and her friends useful things like how girls get pregnant and how to remove unwanted facial hair, as well as girlish superstitions, such as how the number of calcium deposits on their fingernails corresponds with the number of boys who like them. She spends her days baby-sitting Louie's sisters, and in the evening, she takes her radio outside and dances, smokes cigarettes, and waits for boys to come by.

The Three Sisters

Lucy and Rachel's baby sister dies. The neighborhood gathers in Lucy and Rachel's house to view the baby before she is buried.The sisters can tell that Esperanza is uncomfortable at the wake and call her over to talk to her. They compliment Esperanza on her name and tell her she is special and that she will go far. She has guessed Esperanza's wish, and Esperanza feels guilty for wishing for such a selfish thing. The woman tells her she will always be Mango Street.

Hips

Lucy told Esperanza that she needed hip when she grows up.She talks about hips with Lucy,Nenny,and Rachael.They make funny rhymes and poems about it.

No Speak English

Mamacita is the wife of one of Esperanza's neighbors. Her husband works very hard to bring her and her child to Mango Street, but once Mamacita arrives, she never leaves the house.Some people think she never leaves her room because she is too fat or because she cannot get down the three flights of stairs, but Esperanza believes she refuses to come down because she doesn't speak any English.Esperanza's father explains how hard it is to live in the United States without knowing English, saying that when he first arrived, the only food he knew was "hamandeggs," so he had to eat hamandeggs three times a day.It breaks her heart that even he insists upon speaking this ugly language that she cannot understand.

Geraldo No Last Name

Marin met Geraldo at a dance.She know how to dance and he was one of her dance partners.He told her his name was Geraldo, green pants and Saturday shirt.She spent hours at the hospital .Esperanza questions if he hadn't lost so much blood,if a surgeon would have come then maybe they would know who to notify.They never heard from Geraldo ever again.

Louie, His Cousins & His other Cousin

Meme Ortiz's family rents their basement apartment to a Puerto Rican family. The family's son Louie is a friend of Esperanza's brother. Louie's cousin Marin also lives with the family in the basement. Marin is older than Esperanza and wears nylons and Avon makeup, which she also sells in her free time. One day, another cousin of Louie's drives up in a beautiful new Cadillac and takes the neighborhood kids for a ride. They go around the block again and again, until they hear sirens. Louie's cousin orders everyone out and takes off in the car. The cops arrest him.

Meme Ortiz

Meme, whose real name is Juan, and his dog, who has both English and Spanish names, move into Cathy's house after her family leaves the neighborhood. Esperanza describes the house, a wooden house Cathy's father built. It has a tree in the backyard that is taller than Esperanza's house. When the kids had a Tarzan jumping contest, Meme jumped out of the tree and broke both his arms.

Minerva Writes Poems

Minerva is only two years older than Esperanza, but she is married with two children. Her husband has left her, but he sometimes returns, only to leave again.She shares her poems with Esperanza, and Esperanza shares hers. However, Minerva also continues to take her husband back, even when he beats her.

Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesday

On Tuesdays, when Rafaela's husband has his poker game, he locks her in their third-floor apartment because she is so beautiful, he's afraid she'll escape. She spends these afternoons and evenings leaning out the window, which makes her prematurely old. She wants to go dance at the bar down the street while she is still young, but instead she has to drop a dollar out of the window so that Esperanza and her friends can buy her some coconut or papaya juice at the store, which Rafaela then hauls up on a clothesline.

There Was an Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn't Know What To Do

Rose Vargas has many kids who tire her by always buttoning,bottling, and babying .She cries every day for the man who left her without even leaving a dollar for her and her kids.

Edna's Ruthie

Ruthie, tall skinny lady with red lipstick and blue babushka , one blue sock and one green because she forgot. She takes her dog Bobo for a walk and just laughs on her own. She is Edna's daughter, the lady who owns the big building and screams at everybody.Ruthie likes candy and lends Esperanza money to buy some for her.She could have become anything she wanted, she could whistle, dance, and sing.

Sally

Sally is extremely beautiful. She wears Cleopatra makeup, nylons, and short skirts. At school she leans against the fence, and all the boys spread vicious gossip about her. Sally's father thinks her beauty is dangerous and doesn't let her out of the house, but Esperanza thinks Sally is wonderful and would like to be her new best friend. She wants to learn to line her eyes as Sally does. Esperanza understands that Sally wishes she didn't have to go home after school so she wouldn't have to worry about her father, gossip, or not belonging.

Linoleum Roses

Sally marries before the end of the year. She marries a much older salesman who has to take her to another state where it is legal to marry girls who are under fourteen.He does not let her go out, talk on the phone, see her friends, or even look out the window. Sally spends her days sitting at home and looking at the domestic objects around her.

What Sally Said

Sally's father beats her. She comes to school bruised and says she fell, but it's easy to see she's been beaten.Sally's father is afraid she'll run off with a man and bring shame to the family like his sisters did. At one point Sally asks to come and stay with Esperanza's family. She brings over a bag and prepares to move in, but that evening her father comes by with tears in his eyes. He apologizes and asks her to come home. She does, and she is safe for a while. However, one day Sally's father sees Sally talking to a boy. He beats her with a belt and then with his fists. She is injured so badly that she misses two days of school.

My Name

She explains what her name means.In english it means hope;it means sadness, waiting.She would prefer a shorter name.It used to be her grandmother's name who also was a Chinese zodiac horse too.

Chanclas

She is going to a baptism party at Precious Blood Church with Uncle Nacho and her Mama.She disliked the shoes she wore even though her mom bought her a new dress.She is embarrassed to dance but realized she it doesn't matter.

Boys & Girls

She wants to have Nenny as her best friend but Nenny is still too young.She wanted to pick her sister but said it wasn't her fault who she gets.Nenny is Esperanza's responsibility .

Sire

Sire is Esperanza's first real crush. He is a neighborhood boy who sometimes stares at her. Esperanza always tries to stare straight ahead when she passes him and not to be afraid. Her parents tell her Sire is a punk and that she shouldn't talk to him. Sire has a pretty, petite girlfriend, Lois, who doesn't know how to tie her shoes. Esperanza watches Sire and Lois take walks, or Lois riding Sire's bike. Esperanza wonders what it would be like to be in Lois's place, but her parents say that Lois is the kind of girl who goes into alleys. That doesn't keep Esperanza from wishing she could sit up outside late at night on the steps with Sire, or from wondering what it feels like to be held by a boy, something she so far has felt only in her dreams.

Esperanza

The girl who moved in the house on Mango Street with her siblings;Kiki,Nenny,Carlos and her parents that also disliked her new home who is also sharing her life in this book.

A Rice Sandwich

The special kids eat in the canteen.Esperanza asks her mother to make a sandwich and write a note to the principal so she could eat in the canteen to.Sister Superior has to make sure its okay.She made Esperanza stand on a stack of books and point to her house.Sister Superior pointed to the row of raggedy houses and Esperanza was nervous so she nodded. Sister Superior was fine with it.Esperanza cried and realized it was nothing special once she got there.