Ch. 34
"Some days after dinner, guests and I will sit in front of a fire. Floorboards will squeak upstairs. The attic grumble." (Cisneros 87)
What literary device is being used throughout this quote?
Imagery
Why doesn't Esperanza believe she can just "pick and choose" her own future like Nenny does?
Because Esperanza thinks that she is ugly, and only pretty people, like Nenny, have that privilege.
Name at least 2 things that Esperanza's mother is good at
Speaking 2 languages
Singing an opera
How to fix a T.V.
Drawing
Sewing
School
Why does Esperanza say she'll let "bums" live in her attic when she finally has a house of her own?
Esperanza states that she'll never forget where she came from. She knows what it's like to not have a home and, because she is humble, she is willing to share her own with others that are in her past situation.
Esperanza talks about women in the movies who are "beautiful and cruel." What is this an example of?
Juxtaposition AND rebelling against gender norms
Name 2 literary devices that are being used in the following quote:
"Someday she would like to go to the ballet. Someday she would like to see a play. She borrows opera records from the public library and sings with velvety lungs powerful as morning glories." (Cisneros 90)
1. Anaphora: "Someday"
2. End Rhyme: "ballet" & "play"
3. Metaphor: "velvety lungs"
4. Simile: "powerful as morning glories"
"People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth." (Cisneros 86)
1. What literary device is being used?
2. What does Esperanza mean by this?
1. Metaphor
2. People with more money and their own houses do not consider those who are without, like Esperanza and her family.
Explain what Esperanza means when she says that she has decided "not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain." (Cisneros 88)
Esperanza will not conform to gender norms about how women are supposed to look and act proper and docile. Instead, she rebels against this notion by deciding that she will do the opposite.
"Ball and chain" is an old-fashioned term that refers to something or someone that limits your freedom or ability to do things.
1. Why doesn't Esperanza's mother continue going to school?
2. What does she use this story to warn Esperanza against?
1. She didn't have nice clothes.
2. She is warning her against letting shame get in the way of success.
"I don't tell them I am ashamed - all of us staring out the window like the hungry." (Cisneros 86)
There's that window motif again!
1. In the novel, what does staring out a window represent?2. Why is Esperanza ashamed?
1. Staring out a window represents wishing/dreaming for a better life.
2. Esperanza is ashamed because she doesn't want to just wish for a better life - she wants a better life now.
Gender Norms are social standards and ideas on how women and men should be and act. They are typically centered around conceptions of masculinity and femininity, which excludes other gender identities. Example: Boys wear blue. Girls wear pink. This is a very limited and problematic take. Why? Well, for starters, colors don't have a gender.
Rebelling against gender norms is one way that a person can take back power and control from a society that enforces gender stereotypes.
What gender norm is Esperanza pushing back on in the following quote? "I have begun my own quiet war. Simple. Sure. I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate." (Cisneros 89)
Esperanza is pushing back on the gender norm that women should clean up the dinner table while men don't have to.
Refusing to conform to this gender stereotype about women is a "quiet war" because it is an act of rebellion that is not overtly disruptive.
What does mama mean when she says "Look at my comadres. She means Izaura whose husband left and Yolanda whose husband is dead. Got to take care all your own." (Cisneros 91)
*Comadres means friend/neighbor in Spanish
She means that a woman should be able to take care of herself without a man.