Just the Facts, Ma'am
This is how the house on Mango Street is an improvement for the Cordero family.
What is they own the house and do not have to deal with landlords?
The high heels and the four skinny trees are all example of this literary device.
What is a symbol?
This is the significance of comparing Esperanza's great-grandmother to a wild horse.
Esperanza's great-grandmother is depicted as a woman - often understood as weak - who had to be forcibly taken - as a horse that needs to be broken - and forced into the state of matrimony. She would have preferred to remain free and wild. A statement is therewith made on the topic of gender.
This is the meaning of the warning from Mr. Benny at the corner grocery about the shoes. He says, "Them are dangerous. You girls too young to be wearing shoes like that" (41).
What is that Mr. Benny is emphasizing how it is scary to attract attention of a sexual nature as they might not be prepared to be viewed as a sexual object?
These are some of the messages sent regarding gender and sexuality in the collection of vignettes.
What is...
Women are nearly powerless in a male-dominated society.
There is a constant conflict between being a sexual being and keeping one’s freedom.
This is the character with whom Esperanza dances at her cousin's baptism.
Who is Uncle Nacho rather than the boy who asks her?
It is an example of this literary device when Esperanza calls her own hair "lazy."
What is personification?
This is the significance of the old brown saddle shoes that Esperanza wears to the baptism.
What is the shame and embarrassment that Esperanza imposes on herself, much as the nun did? What is her own self-imposed embarrassment is also capable of paralyzing her, just like when the nun shamed her for where she lived. This shows that Esperanza is very sensitive as a young person, and her own shame will be another obstacle in the way of her development.
This is the meaning of Esperanza's assertion (an example of imagery) that her classmates at school "say [her] name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of one's mouth" (11)?
What is that people from different ethnicities often do not understand the value of one's culture? There is a difficulty to pronounce her name the meaning of which is unknown to and unappreciated by the speakers.
This is the message sent by Esperanza's effort and ability to learn names, words, and experiences and then recall them to put into her story.
What is the gradual mastery over language and its uses which enables one to attain social mobility and progress?
This is why Esperanza's aunt Lupe encourages her to continue writing.
What is it will keep her free?
It is an example of this literary device when Esperanza states, “All were little. Their arms were little, and their hands were little…” (39).
What is repetition?
This is the significance of the four skinny trees outside of Esperanza's window.
What is Esperanza empathizes with the four trees that are personified and that - much like Esperanza and her siblings - will grow stronger despite being raised in the controlling concrete and will recognize their own strength?
This is the meaning of Esperanza's inquiry regarding Lupe's illness, "I don't know who decides who deserves to go bad. There was no evil in her birth. No wicked curse" (59).
What is the fact that fate is random and cruel and not deserved due to some bad action?
This is the message sent on the topic of home.
What is the ability of the nostalgic recollection of the desires and frustrations experienced in one's childhood home and its ability to inspire one to exert effort to achieve the (American) dream of the home of one's choosing (although even the effort might not be sufficient)?
This is what Esperanza associates with being a man.
What is leaving the table without putting the chair back or picking up one's plate?
It is an example of this literary device when Esperanza asserts, "We must be Christmas."
What is a metaphor?
This is the significance of Nenny's "pretty eyes" (88).
What is the creation of options by physical beauty?
This is the meaning of the anaphora (the repetition of "not" in the consecutive phrases: "Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house) at the beginning of the vignette "A House of my Own" (108).
What is the fact that her house, like blank paper before she covers it with her ideas and words, will be something she will create?
This is a message sent on the topic of coming of age.
What is the realization that with adulthood come responsibilities as well as independence?
What is the realization that growing older has its own limitations, specifically, when it comes to being a female?
What is the realization that maturation requires boldness to carve out one's own fate in American society?
This is Esperanza's purpose for leaving Mango Street according to the final vignette, "Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes."
What is to come back for "the ones [she leaves] behind" because "they cannot [get] out" (110)?
It is an example of this literary device when Esperanza states, "Today we are Cinderella" (40).
What is an allusion?
This is the significance of the trait of blindness of Esperanza's aunt Guadalupe (despite the fact that she realizes what Esperanza should do with her life).
What is Lupe represents a mythological seer in some ways, as she is blind and prophetic but mocked by others (which are typical traits and public receptions of seers in Greek myth)? She predicts Esperanza's future.
This is why Esperanza insists that she never saw the three sisters - "Not once, or twice, or ever again" (105).
What is Esperanza is indicating her awareness of the fact that the encounter was a supernatural event? They are the representations of the “three fates” of ancient mythology and these are women who decide, death, birth and lengths of lives. The expressions calls to mind returning as with a circle.
This is a message conveyed on the topic of identity.
What is a goal shared by all humans is goal is to be an autonomous individual who controls one's own choices?
What is the idea that a desire to be loved does not negate one's wish to achieve agency and autonomy?