Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Analysis |
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What is the composition of Esperanza's family?
Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, Nenny, Esperanza
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What is the smell of Esperanza's mother's hair?
Bread
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What is Esperanza's name in Spanish?
It is too many letters, sadness, and waiting.
A muddy color, the number nine, Mexican records with songs like sobbing. |
What is Nenny's real name?
Magdalena
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Why doesn't Esperanza consider the house on Mango Street to be a real home?
It does not fit the picture that her father has been describing for years. It is not a house that can be kept forever (running water and pipes that worked, real stairs, basement, three washrooms...)
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What is the reason why Esperanza's family left Loomis Street?
The water pipe was broken and the landlord wouldn't fix it.
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Why can't Nenny play with the Vargas kids?
Because Nenny will turn out just like them.
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Who had Esperanza's name before her?
Her great-grandmother
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What names does Esperanza wish she had?
Lisandra, Martiza, Zeze the X
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When Esperanza mentions that she knows how those things to go in reference to her father saying the house on Mango Street is temporary, what does she mean?
She means that they will never find a permanent house and she is already used to moving so often anyway.
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What is the house on Mango Street's appearance?
It is small and red with tight steps in front and small windows. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is swollen. There is no front yard, only four little elms. Small garage, one washroom, one bedroom, small yard.
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What is the difference between the brothers' attitude to Esperanza in the house and outside the house?
They have plenty to say to Esperanza and Nenny inside the house but outside the house they can't be seen talking to girls.
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Why does Esperanza believe being a female born in the year of the horse isn't such a bad thing?
She thinks it was a lie made by the Chinese to keep their women weak.
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Why does Esperanza want a new name?
Her name doesn't reflect her real self and she does not have any nicknames like her sister Nenny does. She is "always Esperanza" and at school, they say her name wrong.
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Why is there a whole chapter on hair?
To attribute her family's hair qualities to their personalities and to make distinctions between them in a very personal manner.
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What is the old woman referencing to Esperanza when she says Esperanza lives "there?"
The house on Loomis Street
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Who is Carlos' best friend?
Kiki
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What doesn't Esperanza want to inherit from her great-grandmother?
Her place by the window.
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What is the style in which this book is written?
A series of vignettes
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Why do the boys have a separate world from the girls? What is the author hinting at?
She is hinting at gender stereotypes.
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What is everyone's different kind of hair?
Papa's--a broom
Esperanza's--lazy Carlos'--thick and straight Nenny's--slippery Kiki's--furry hair Mothers'--curly and pretty |
What does Esperanza's name mean in English?
Hope
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What does the window mean, symbolically?
Her great-grandmother's abuse and oppression due to her controlling husband.
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Does Esperanza consider the house on Mango Street to be a real home?
No.
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Does the great-grandmother have an identity with her husband?
No, she is tamed and cannot be herself anymore.
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