Plot Elements
This part of a story introduces the setting and characters. In The House on Mango Street, it introduces Mango Street and Esperanza’s family.
What is the exposition?
Esperanza, the main character and narrator, is this literary role.
Who is the protagonist?
This is the setting of The House on Mango Street.
What is a Chicago neighborhood in the 1950s/60s?
This is the message or lesson a story suggests. In Mango Street, one message is that identity is shaped by both place and experience.
What is theme?
The point of view of The House on Mango Street.
What is first person?
This moment of greatest tension in a story. In the vignette “Red Clowns,” it occurs when Esperanza experiences an upsetting and violating encounter at the carnival.
What is the climax?
The person or force working against the main character. In Mango Street, this is not a single person but larger forces like poverty and sexism.
What is the antagonist?
This image-based language helps readers imagine what Esperanza sees. An example is the detailed description of her house.
What is imagery?
This thematic idea appears when Esperanza watches characters like Marin, Rafaela, Sally, and gets advice from her mom in "A Smart Cookie."
What is the author’s belief that girls should have freedom and opportunity?
This type of tone appears in vignettes like “Hairs,” where Esperanza uses warm, loving descriptions of her family.
What is a sentimental or affectionate tone?
This is the central struggle in a story. One example from the book is Esperanza’s struggle to define who she is and where she belongs.
What is conflict?
Name one of the two ways that authors reveal character traits.
What is dialogue or internal thoughts?
This repeated object or image stands for something bigger. In the book, windows often represent the limits placed on women.
What is a symbol?
This theme emerges when Esperanza dreams of a house of her own but also realizes she must return for “the ones who cannot leave.”
What is the belief that people should honor their roots and lift their communities?
This vignette shows Esperanza’s embarrassment about her home.
What is “Those Who Don’t” or “Chanclas,” or "Alicia & I Talking on Edna's Steps," “The House on Mango Street”?
This kind of conflict occurs inside a character. Esperanza shows it when she feels ashamed of her home but also protective of it.
What is internal conflict?
In “Linoleum Roses,” the author reveals Sally’s character not through her own words, but through what Esperanza notices about her silence and isolation after marriage. This is an example of what method of characterization?
What is indirect characterization through observations of behavior and environment?
In the vignette “Those Who Don’t,” Esperanza describes how outsiders fear her neighborhood, even though she feels safe there. This contrast reveals that setting can symbolize what?
What is the difference between how a community is perceived from the outside and how it is lived and loved from within?
This deeper theme is shown through Esperanza’s growing pride in her culture and voice towards the end of the text.
What is the belief that embracing one’s identity is essential to personal growth?
This literary device is used when Esperanza describes her mother’s hair as “like little rosettes.”
What is a simile?
This kind of conflict pits a character against an outside force. An example is Esperanza against the social expectations placed on girls in her neighborhood.
What is external conflict?
This type of conflict occurs when a character battles between who they are and who they want to become. Esperanza experiences this throughout the book.
What is person vs. self?
This symbol represents Esperanza’s dreams of a better future—one she builds for herself, not one she inherits.
What is the house “on a hill” that she imagines for her future?
Across the book, Cisneros shows Esperanza wanting to escape Mango Street while also feeling responsible for the people who cannot leave. What deeper belief about identity and belonging is the author expressing through this tension?
What is the idea that true independence includes acknowledging and honoring where you come from? OR personal growth is incomplete without connection to one’s roots?
This craft choice—short, poetic snapshots instead of one continuous plot—helps readers understand Esperanza’s inner growth over time.
What is the vignette structure? / What is using vignettes?