Activity Packet

“The House on Mango Street”

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is an important novel to include

in the canon of adolescent literature. It is filled with literary concepts that will be useful

for understanding the novel as well as applicable to future forms of literature. It also

deals with subject matter that is very relatable to students at the 10 th grade level, such
as growing up and coming into one’s own.

BIOGRAPHY OF AUTHOR SANDRA CISNEROS

Born December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Sandra Cisneros is an

American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet.

Cisneros is one of the first Hispanic-American writers who has

achieved commercial success. She is lauded by literary

scholars

and critics for works which help bring the perspective of

Chicana (Mexican-American) women into the mainstream of

literary feminism.

Cisneros received her B.A. from Loyola University in 1976 and her M.F.A from the

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1978. This workshop marks an important

turning point in her career as a writer. Cisneros had periodically written poems and

stories while growing up, but it was the frustrations she encountered at the Writer's

Workshop that inspired Cisneros' realization that her experiences as a Latina woman

were unique and outside the realm of dominant American culture. Thus, Cisneros

decided to write about conflicts directly related to her upbringing, including divided

cultural loyalties, feelings of alienation, and degradation associated with poverty. These

specific cultural and social concerns, coupled with Cisneros' feelings of alienation as a

Latina writer, came to life five years later in The House on Mango Street (1983).

In addition to writing, Cisneros has taught at the Latino Youth Alternative High School in
Chicago and has been a college recruiter and counselor for minority students at Loyala

University of Chicago. She served as literature director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts

Center in San Antonio, Texas, and was an artist in residence at the Foundation Michael

Karolyi in Vence, France. She has been a guest professor at California State University,

University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan,

Ann Arbor and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Cisneros is also a member

of PEN and Mujeres por la Paz, a women's peace group which helps organize.

Cisneros was the only daughter among seven children, and her brothers attempts to

make her assume a traditional female role is reflected in the feminist strains of her

writing, glorifying heroines who dream of economic independence and celebrating the

"wicked" sexuality of women. The family frequently moved between the United States

and Mexico because of her father's homesickness for his native country and his

devotion to his mother who lived there. Consequently, Cisneros often felt homeless and

displaced. She began to read extensively, finding comfort in such works as Virginia Lee

Burton's The Little House and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Today,

Cisneros' works give both solace and realistic lessons about feelings which, as a child,

she felt were uniquely hers, namely cultural division, loneliness and shame.

A prime example of how Cisneros' writing speak to the experiences of the forgotten or

invisible of American society is The House on Mango Street. In this work, widely

celebrated

by critics, teachers, adults and adolescents alike, Cisneros introduces the reader to
Esperanza - a poor, Latina adolescent who longs for a room of her own and a house of

which she can be proud. Although Cisneros is noted primarily for her fiction, her poetry

has also garnered attention. In My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Cisneros writes about

her native Chicago, her travels in Europe, and, as reflected in the title, sexual guilt

resulting from her strict Catholic upbringing. A collection of sixty poems, each of which

resemble a short story, the work exemplifies one of Cisneros' acclaimed knack for

combining and crossing the boundaries of genre.

Cisneros' other works include Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), and the

poetry collections Bad Boys and Loose Woman (1994). She has also written a book for

juveniles, Pelitos (1994). Cisneros has also contributed to numerous periodicals,

including Imagine, Contact II, Glamour, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times,

The Village Voice and Revista Chicano-Riquena. These works, short in titles but great in

fresh literary ideas and cultural resonance, have garnered Sandra Cisneros wide critical

acclaim as well as popular success. By reaching deep into her Chicana-Mexican

heritage and articulating sensations of displacement and longing, Sandra Cisneros has

created a lasting tribute to those who must conquer similar battles as she, and has

thereby left a lasting friend for all who have let their imaginations build a house all their

own.

BOOK ANSWER ME!

CHAPTER
 The narrator describes her mother’s hairs as being “like
little candy circles all curly and pretty.” What does this
HAIRS metaphor and those in the next paragraph suggest about
the young girl’s feelings for her mother?

How old do you think the narrator is? What gives you this
impression?
BOYS AND GIRLS

What’s In A Name?
1. What is your full name on your birth certificate?
2. How/Why did your parents choose this name?

3. Do you have a nickname? If so, what is it and how did you get it?

4. If you could change your name to any other name, what name would you choose?
Why?
Cathy Queen of Cats
Describe a neighbor that you may or may not know and
what you think they might be like based on your
 observations or your imagination. Make sure you give them
a unique name such as Cathy Queen of
Cats.
What’s my NEIGHBORHOOD like?
Give a description of Esperanza’s neighborhood as depicted in the
novel. Then, give a description of your own
neighborhood.

Description
Esperanza’s
Neighborhood

My Own
Neighborhood

Role Models
Esperanza is exposed to several female role models
throughout her life experience on Mango Street. After
 reading each of the following chapters, identify the
significant event that happened in the life of the
individual woman described in the chapter and how the
person is a positive or negative female role model for
Esperanza.
Chapter Individual What Happened & How The Person Is A
Role Model
Edna’s Ruthie
Ruthie

Rafaela Rafaela
Who
Drinks
Coconut
Sally Sally

Minerva Minerva
Writes
Poems

Name three of your own role models and explain why they have had a positive influence
on your life.
1.

2.

3.

Escaping Where You Come From

The theme of escape is weaved throughout many of the
 stories in “The House on Mango Street” and nearly all of
the residents dream of escaping their neighborhood in
search of a better opportunity and lifestyle.

Book Answer Me
Chapter
Linoleum 1. How is Sally able to leave Mango Street?
Roses

2. Has Sally found the kind of freedom Esperanza is searching

for? Why or why not?

3. What has Sally gained and what has she lost by leaving
Mango Street?

Three Sisters 1. What does Esperanza wish for?

2. What did the three sisters mean when they said “you must
remember to come back for the others?”

3. Will Esperanza follow their advice?

 Alicia and I Why does Esperanza feel like she does not belong in her
Talking on the neighborhood?
Steps

A House of My What is most important to Esperanza? Why?

Own

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