Who, What, Where?
Objects, Images & Motifs
Reading Closely
Quote, Device & Effect
Big Connections Across the Novel
100

In “The First Job,” where does Esperanza get her first job?

At Peter Pan Photo Finishers on North Broadway.

100

In “The First Job,” what does Esperanza have to wear on her hands while matching negatives with prints?

White gloves.

100

In “The First Job,” where does Esperanza eat lunch because she is afraid to eat in the company lunchroom?

In a washroom stall.

100

"Papa crumples like a coat when he begins to cry."

Simile.

100

In “My Name,” what place does Esperanza say she does not want to inherit from her great-grandmother?

Her place by the window.

200

In “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark,” what news does Papa give Esperanza early in the morning?

Her grandfather, her abuelito, has died.

200

In “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark,” what simile describes Papa when he begins to cry?

He “crumples like a coat.”

200

In “Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water,” what phrase does Elenita repeat when Esperanza asks about a house?

“A home in the heart.”

200

“And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him.”

Repetition

200

In “The Family of Little Feet,” what does the man outside the tavern offer Rachel if she will kiss him?

A dollar.

300

In “Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water,” what does Esperanza specifically ask Elenita about?

A house.

300

In “Born Bad,” what does Aunt Lupe tell Esperanza that writing will do for her?

It will keep her free.

300

In “Geraldo No Last Name,” what three kinds of missing information make it difficult for anyone to identify Geraldo?

No address, no last name, and nothing in his pockets.

300

“They’re strange, with blond men on horses and crazy baseball bats with thorns. Golden goblets, sad-looking women dressed in old-fashioned dresses, and roses that cry.”

Personification

300

In “Red Clowns,” where is Esperanza waiting for Sally when she is assaulted?

By the red clowns near the carnival ride 

400

In “Geraldo No Last Name,” who is the last person to see Geraldo alive?

Marin.

400

In “The Earl of Tennessee,” Earl’s two little black dogs are compared to what punctuation marks?

An apostrophe and a comma.

400

In “Born Bad,” what cruel game do Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy play involving Aunt Lupe?

They imitate her illness and disability.

400

“Most likely I will go to hell and most likely I deserve to be there.”

Hyperbole 

400

In “The Three Sisters,” what do the sisters tell Esperanza she must do after she leaves Mango Street?

She must come back for the ones who cannot leave.

500

In “Edna’s Ruthie,” why is Ruthie living on Mango Street even though she supposedly has a “real house” of her own?

She says she is just visiting and that her husband will take her home, but she never actually leaves.

500

In “Sire,” what can Esperanza do that Lois cannot do, even though Lois seems older and more sexually mature?

Esperanza can tie her shoes; Lois cannot.

500

In “Sire,” what does Esperanza mean when she says she looks back at Sire “like he was glass”?

She tries to look at him boldly, as if she can see through him or prove she is not afraid of him.

500

“At night Nenny and I can hear when Earl comes home from work. First the click and whine of the car door opening, then the scrape of concrete, the excited tinkling of dog tags, followed by the heavy jingling of keys, and finally the moan of the wooden door as it opens and lets loose its sigh of dampness.”

sound imagery

500

In one of the last vignettes, who tells Esperanza, “Like it or not you are Mango Street”?

Alicia.