Lit. Analysis Questions Set #1

1) The House on Mango Street is about a young girl named Esperanza who has recently moved her family onto Mango Street. She is of Mexican heritage and she doesn't understand all things in life or why her family struggles economically. Esperanza through out the whole novel complains about the bad aspects of Mango Street and not once does she say anything good about it. The book is based on her first year living on Mango Street and within that year she makes new friends and through the story she describes them from the way they dress to their personalities. Her closest friends are Rachel and Lucy, even though they fight quite often they always end up coming to an apostate. Esperanza watches everybody grow up as she grows up herself into a mature young lady.  She begins to fantasize about boys and likes talking to Sally whom wants to leave Mango Street to go far away to find love. Esperanza begins to thing the same way and can relate herself to Sally because she as well feels neglected by her family and want to leave Mango Street more than anything. Esperanza watches an old lady that lives in her neighborhood and catches her interest. Soon enough Esperanza feels that it's time for her to leave home on Mango Street but she just can't do it. She can't leave everyone behind therefore writing becomes her escape. She writes to escape the awful truth that she'll never be able to completely leave Mango Street.
2) The theme of the novel is physical vs. mental because through out the entire novel Esperanza wants to grow up and be like the other older kids she observes on Mango Street but mentally she is not ready for that change to occur. Esperanza also has a fight between her physical and mental state when it comes to leaving Mango Street. Within her mind, Esperanza can't wait to leave and make a life of her own away from Mango Street but her physical is not capable of living on it's own without the help of her family. Constantly Esperanza want to develop her physical into something that mentally she wants not realizing growing up is a process that occurs on it's own physically.
3) Sandra Cisneros's tone in the novel is desirable, hopeful and earnest. For example, Esperanza hopes to one day leave Mango Street and the whole point of the novel is for her to explain why and express her want for that to happen as soon as possible. Esperanza describes many kids from the neighborhood but only Sally and Marin stand out to her because they tell her all about being in love and wanting to escape to a place where you can be free, exactly what Esperanza wants. Sally tells her about the abusive life she lives and Esperanza feels the desire to want to make her abusive life stop and keep Sally safe. The earnest tone is all over the novel, Esperanza dislikes Mango Street and is tired of going to see nice houses with her family that she knows they can't have and don't have. The last time she goes to see the nice house on the hills she tells her mother about her dislike of doing that and why she'd like to just leave. Esperanza is sincere, truthful and willing to speak her mind.
4) Sandra Cisneros's uses various literary elements but five of them are:

•  Similes: "Sally is the girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke. The boys at school think she's beautiful because her hair is shiny black like raven feathers and when she laughs, she flicks her hair back like a satin shawl over her shoulders and laughs"
• Allusions: "Sally who taught you to paint your eyes like Cleopatra?"/"Rafaela who drinks and drinks coconut and papaya juice on Tuesdays and wishes there were sweeter drinks, not bitter like an empty room, but sweet sweet like the island, like the dance hall down the street where women much older than her throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys." (allusion to Rapunzel)
•  Personification: " They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger." (Four Skinny Trees)
•  Hyperbole: "The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can't replace." (The Vargas' kids)
•  Easy to comprehend diction: "I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. "