“Is a good girl, my friend, studies all night and sees the mice, the ones her father says do not exist.”
Who is Alicia?
100
A short, well-written sketch or descriptive scene.
What is a vignette?
100
She makes Esperanza feel like “a red balloon…tied to an anchor.”
Who is Nenny?
100
“She is too many light-years away. She is in a world we don’t belong to anymore.”
Who is Nenny?
200
She feels a connection to this ancestor because they share a name and were both born in the Chinese year of the horse.
Who is Esperanza's great-grandmother?
200
“She says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape.”
Who is Sally
200
A common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work; the message of a story.
What is theme?
200
Esperanza’s first friend on Mango Street; moves away because her father says the neighborhood is “getting bad.”
Who is Cathy (Queen of Cats)?
200
“[She] lights a cigarette and it doesn’t matter if it’s cold out or if the radio doesn’t work or if we’ve got nothing to say to each other. What matters, [she] says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them.”
Who is Marin?
300
Lisandra, or Maritza, or Zeze the X.
What would Esperanza rather be called?
300
“Está muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries.”
Who is Papa?
300
The manner of expression of a particular writer produced by word choice, sentence structure,
use of literary devices, rhythm, and other elements of composition.
What is style?
300
Migrant worker who dies in hit-and-run; no contact information with which to reach his next of kin.
Who is Geraldo?
300
“She is tiny and pretty and smells like baby’s skin…she wears makeup too. But she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes.”
Who is Lois (Sire's girlfriend)?
400
Education and writing will provide her with this.
What is independence (or escape, or power)?
400
"She knows to say: He not here for when the landlord comes, No speak English if anybody else comes, and Holy smokes."
Who is Mamacita
400
The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments.
What is juxtaposition?
400
Marries a marshmallow salesman before she’s in 8th grade.
Who is Sally?
400
“[She] leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s.”
Who is Rafaela?
500
She describes these life stages as a "ball and chain."
What are marriage and motherhood?
500
“…[she] is the only grown-up we know who likes to play. She doesn’t need anybody to laugh with, she just laughs.”
Who is (Edna's) Ruthie?
500
A novel depicting someone's growth from childhood to maturity; a "coming of age" story .
What is a bildungsroman?
500
Foresees a “home in the heart” in Esperanza’s future.
Who is Elenita?
500
“You just remember to keep writing, Esperanza. You must keep writing. It will keep you free…”