Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 12.02.06

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. School and Classroom Background
  3. Rationale
  4. Objectives
  5. Classroom Strategies
  6. Reading Themes
  7. Assessments
  8. Sample Lessons
  9. Appendix
  10. Annotated Bibliography
  11. Endnotes

Development of the Latina Voice in The House on Mango Street

Joseph Mitacek

Published September 2012

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Rationale

I find The House on Mango Street powerful because I believe it evokes achieving the American Dream for a segment of the United States population that is so often marginalized. As the Latino migration has grown in the United States in the nearly thirty years since the book's publication, its message has only grown more pertinent. Working with a student population that is made up of a plurality of Latinos and many first generation Americans, I find this book to be very relevant and powerful and will use this unit to unlock its message. As Andrea O'Reilly Herrera says, "For Sandra Cisneros the house on Mango Street simultaneously represents all the systems that oppose or challenge her as a woman, a minority, and a writer." 2 Despite everything that could hold the main character back, she still succeeds by leaving Mango Street to make a better life and achieve her dreams. We are left with the confidence that she will return and help those who she left behind who could not break out of the constraints around them.

While much has changed in the half century since Cisneros's youth, many of the same conflicts she describes still exist today. In reading The House on Mango Street, I hope for students to see how the author has described cultural and sometimes structural barriers that prohibit pursuit of a better life and to connect them with hurdles in their own lives. At the end of the book, Esperanza promises to come back to her old neighborhood for "the ones I left behind." 3 I believe by writing the book, Cisneros did just that but to a much vaster audience of endless readers. My rationale for developing this unit is to help students recognize the barriers that constrain them and inspire them to make the decisions needed to succeed in life. It is my goal for students to see it is possible to break those barriers just as Esperanza did in leaving Mango Street, while at the same time realizing they can do this without compromising their identity. For my students this might mean having the courage to leave their community to attend college or to stay their and pursue their personal interests; to go wherever their dreams lead them.

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