Reading Themes
The themes I will address sample vignettes throughout the book, but not always in a linear fashion. I begin and end working on the same theme which is dedicated to Cisneros' personal story and how it is expressed in the book. The Introduction to The House on Mango Street highlights Cisneros' background and personal story and then the ultimate lesson of persevering over challenges is revisited after lessons on each of the themes covered. Two of the themes are about challenges themselves: overcoming stereotypes and creating identity and the attitude of machismo. Other themes I cover in the book are the development of the Latina voice, family, and storytelling. These themes are meant to be addressed in chronological order, with the exception that Cisneros' personal story is split between the very beginning and end of the unit.
Cisneros' Personal Story and the House on Mango Street
An introduction for the unit will be the actual life experience of the author and her experience in developing the book. The Introduction to The House on Mango Street details her relationship with her parents and the stories of her former students which she sometimes adapted for her book. Even though the stories in The House on Mango Street are not all autobiographical to the author's life, they do contribute to her overall message and what was her own personal struggle. Cisneros says in the introduction to the book:
I cut apart and stitched together events to tailor the story, give it shape so it had a beginning, middle, and end, because real life stories rarely come to us complete. Emotions, though, can't be invented, can't be borrowed. All the emotions my characters feel, good or bad, are mine. 5
This introduction provides the reader with an essential understanding to how and why the book was written. It also provides an outline for the themes I will teach in this unit and introduce to the students at this time. Cisneros' conflict and ultimate resolution (in life, not the book) are shown in her relationship with her father. The struggle in developing her voice, and ultimately the struggle of the Latina voice are highlighted. The introduction is wrought with recognizable references to Chicago which should be a hook for my students' interest. I will also provide background information about Cisneros and explain why the book is so notable internationally.
I will ask students to compare their own experience with their parents or guardians to that of Cisneros. Specifically for comprehension I will ask them to articulate her father's hesitations about her life choices to something that the students' parents or guardians are critical of them about. While this is the core conflict of the book, and a major theme to my unit, it is not immediately apparent in the early chapters of The House on Mango Street. Through this, I hope for the students to identify with this core conflict and help spark their interest in the book.
Also included with the introduction will be the first vignette: "The House on Mango Street" which will be contrasted to the introduction we read called "A House of My Own." At the conclusion of the unit we will revisit the introduction before closing with "Elenita, Cards Palm and Water," "Bums in the Attic," and the last four vignettes: "The Three Sisters," "Alicia and I talking on Edna's Steps," "A House of my Own [the vignette]" and "Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes." This is where the central theme of identity enters in because so much is based on what home is to a person. I am reminded of the quotation from the movie The Departed, which I find applicable here: "don't become a product of your environment; make your environment a product of you." 6 I believe this ends up being Cisneros's goal, but with much more positive intentions than Frank Costello.
In this conclusion to the book, I will discuss what Mango Street has begun to symbolize. At first Esperanza is having a hard time identifying with Mango Street, because it is not the home and life that she wants. She wants something supporting and sophisticated compared to what she knows, but then there is a transformation. Cisneros changes her usage from talking about the house on Mango Street to just talking about Mango and personifying it, referring to Mango as "she." It no longer is just a house where she grew up, but the family and community that raised her and this is why she has to go back. Her having the home she wants can still happen, but Mango always will be part of her, and she can help change Mango to be what she wants it to become. This ends up being an important reflection for what the author has achieved.
Last, I want to spend a brief time exploring Cisneros' writing narrative and look at some of her poetry. I will ask students what they thought of how she wrote these stories, knowing their origins from the introduction, and how they liked this book compared to a normal novel with chapters. While this is a social sciences classroom, I think the format is interesting and worth discussing to help students with their writing.
Overcoming Stereotypes and Creating Identity
According to Gloria Anzaldúa, Chicanos live "on the border," the "fault line," the "wound" between two cultures; although they share aspects of each, ultimately they are dispossessed from both. Further complicating the issue is the idea that Chicanos must come to terms with their fractured Mexican past before they can begin to negotiate their present. 7 While, as I mentioned, there is great beauty to continuing unique traditions for ethnic groups when assimilating into a new location, reconciling differences in culture can become a source of conflict. This is at the core of the conflict in The House on Mango Street.
Within many classrooms, very capable students identify themselves with a group that does not show ambition for growth or live up to their potential because it is contrary to the localized culture in which they have placed themselves. This mindset is on display in The House on Mango Street, where characters make choices that are not in their best interest, but instead follow the path that seems natural among their friends and family. The choices Cisneros made in her own life, represented by the growth in Esperanza, will be focused on in instruction.
"The House on Mango Street is the individual defined within the context of the larger community; it is an idea that is evidenced by the fact that we gradually acquire a fuller understanding of Esperanza's identify as she acquaints us with the various members of her family and neighborhood," 8 and as I believe Gloria Anzaldúa would add, the history of her people. There are many popular stereotypes my students embrace and use as an excuse not to go the extra mile. Through this book and this unit I hope to contribute to the school culture where students are always striving to do their best.
Some vignettes that speak to this are "Cathy Queen of Cats" and "Those Who Don't" where Esperanza is told her neighborhood is scary and depreciating because families like hers are moving in. This makes no sense to Esperanza, but shows an interesting contrast because of how scared she is when she leaves her own neighborhood for a wealthier one. "Four Skinny Trees" highlights how Esperanza feels she and the trees are meant to be in a better place, but that the concrete (a metaphor for other factors) keeps them there. I find these vignettes as a tipping point that made Esperanza see how much she was defined by Mango Street. The institutional differences that Cathy brings up confuses Esperanza, and for the first time she feels ineferior.
"No Speak English" is my favorite vignette in the entire book and speaks to how constraining one's identity to their original culture can be if they never seek to assimilate to their surroundings and break out of it. In this vignette "Mamacita," who left Mexico for her husband, is trapped in her home because she cannot speak English and never breaks out of her homesickness to make any changes. I find this to be a great example of what Janita Heredia cites as "Cisneros factoring the migrations between cities in the United States and Mexico as an extended Mexican culture that transcends the national political divide. This is pivotal in the formation of her protagonist's transnational Latina identity." 9 Esperanza is the hero in the book because she is able to avoid such traps. Esperanza's sad feelings towards characters like Mamacita foreshadow the ultimate lesson of the book, and determines that Esperanza's destiny will not see such pitfalls. The theme assignment in this section is to write a short essay about how the students define themselves.
Supplemental Texts
With a diverse student population in my classroom I wanted to reach beyond The House on Mango Street to include short texts that would share the experiences of other cultures that deal with similar themes. In the middle of teaching this unit, during the theme on identity, I wanted to spend a day reading two other texts. To tell the story of the African American experience of growing up in New York City, I plan to use the chapter "The Baddest Dog in Harlem" from the book, 145 th Street. 10 I intend to use this story to discuss stereotypes of violence in Chicago and what type of barrier that creates for us here. The other piece I plan to use is a selection from Lawrence Yep's memoir The Lost Garden. 11 In this selection the author discusses the choice of staying alienated in his own culture and segregated to a part of town or assimilating into American culture against his parents' wishes.
Family
In The House on Mango Street, the family is prominently featured in the beginning portion of the book, a focus which later is extended to her entire community. There are fun and child-like contrasts in "Hairs" and somber experiences as in "Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark" dealing with the death of a family member. Overall Esperanza's family is portrayed as rich in spirit even though they are materially poor, even in the eyes of humble nuns as portrayed in "A Rice Sandwich" because the family cannot afford to buy her lunch. There is also the revealing vignette on Esperanza's source of discipline and inspiration in "Born Bad."
There is a great contrast in the book between a functional family like Esperanza's and those that lack parent figures. In vignettes like "Minerva Writes Poems" and "There was a Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn't Know What to Do" the patriarchal unit is not present, which results in unfortunate consequences with a toll on the children and the community. I worry about how this will be interpreted, as part of the reason Esperanza ends up being successful is the support of her family, something that is not present for all of my students. While Esperanza's family is not without conflict, the overprotection and refusal to let go of females are not as prominent as in other vignettes. We see this, for example, in the story of "Sally" and "What Sally Said," in which she is beaten by her father for seeking attention from boys at school.
Storytelling
There are a series of other vignettes that do not directly correspond with any of the themes I am teaching, but have a certain romanticism in how they are told. My focus on these vignettes is more for the students to enjoy the story. "Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin" tells the story of the children getting to ride around in a fancy car only to find out it is stolen and the driver gets in a wreck trying to flee the police. "Our Good Day" revolves around kids bargaining to buy their own bike and figuring out how to share it. "Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold" has the children adventuring in a rundown antique shop full of spooky surprises with a curious keeper. "Darius and the Clouds" and "And Some More" are two connected vignettes that show children's innocence and interpretive skills.
The Attitude of Machismo
Michelle Tokarczyk defines machismo as the "code of behavior requiring Latin men to be obviously masculine to demonstrate that they are not womanish. It demands that they control women, especially women's sexuality." 12 Machismo is not so subtly portrayed within The House on Mango Street. Although machismo is never explicitly cited for trapping women in the book, it is clear in the vignettes I highlight that the power men have given themselves come at the cost of women's freedom.
In searching for the origins, Tokarczyk goes back to cite the legend of Malinche (a topic covered previously in my class). With much of the Mexican community tracing its roots back to the Aztecs, Malinche is the women blamed for consorting with the Spanish. Her betrayal and marriage to the Spanish leader Hernán Cortez led to the fall of the Aztec empire. This in turn led to the creation of a mestiza Mexican People who were colonial submissives to Spain. Malinche's betrayal was "both sexual and cultural" and men carried on the lesson that "women cannot be trusted on any level." iv While this story is 500 years old, it provides an interesting historical connection to my students that I will have covered in my classroom.
My students are adolescents going through hormonal changes that do not always lead them to make the best decisions. The machismo attitude is not a conscious action on the part of my male students, but it definitely exists; there is no question that sexism still manifests itself in society, particularly among urban youth. I would like to use several vignettes in The House on Mango Street to show how a male control over women severely impacted the life of a character. My goal in highlighting machismo culture in this unit is to bring an awareness of it, and to see the consequences of it. The students' assessment would be to cite the specific instance of it in the text.
There is no shortage of vignettes that show examples of machismo in The House on Mango Street. "Boys and Girls" hints at the beginnings of machismo at a very young age with boys not willing to communicate with girls at the risk of seeming feminine. "Marin" shows the opposite side of machismo, where a woman has grown to expect and rely on poor treatment from men, and is fatally content with the negative consequences. "Alicia Who Sees Mice" is about a daughter striving to succeed and attend school, but who is forced by her father to take care of the family in the absence of her mother. In "Family of Little Feet" the girls end up dressing up beyond their age and being aggressively seduced by unsavory characters despite their age. "The Earl of Tennessee" portrays a Don Juan of sorts with so many women that Esperanza and the other children are confused about his supposed wife. "Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays" is a more tragic vignette about a girl who gets locked up by her controlling father and is unable to go out and dance like she wants. While the narrator takes pity on Rafaela, she does spare her some respect because those women who go out and dance suffer possibly an even worse fate than her.
The three vignettes of "The Monkey Garden," "Red Clowns," and "Linoleum Roses" together make up a tragic story about the harassment that will be taught later, after the introduction of the character Sally. In standing up for Sally, Esperanza ends up the victim of sexual assault by teenage boys. The account is powerful because of her emotional response. In the next Vignette, you find Sally, an already tragic character, who after meeting a much older man has to move to another state where it is legal to marry at her young age. All of the vignettes I have selected for this theme offer examples in which the machismo attitude has done undue harm to women with long lasting effects.
Development of the Latina Voice
Cisneros's authentic story develops the reader's respect for the power of the Latina voice. I am reminded of when Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor was nominated for the high court, and she was heavily scrutinized for saying "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." 13 While the racial connotation of what was said are obvious, despite being a white male, I understood what Justice Sotomayor meant from my interactions and readings like The House on Mango Street.
The development of a strong Latina voice in the United States is partially reaction to the ages of 'Machismo' suppression. This is why we will examine the Latina voice as a theme following my lessons on 'Machismo.' Throughout the book, Cisneros demonstrates a respect for women, constantly referencing family members and neighbors who have never been able to seize on or even have opportunities presented to them. "My Name" tells of Esperanza's great-grandmother being a wild woman, who was nonetheless tamed by a man. Esperanza shares the same spirit, but the legacy she does not want to repeat. "Smart Cookie" tells the somber story of Esperanza's mother who had so many aspirations but expresses regrets for being constrained by the circumstances around her.
There is a tremendous linear growth of Esperanza when reading through these selected vignettes. There is the young girl's early feminist perspective in "Hips" figuring out what the body part is used for. "Sire" details Esperanza's first 'unrequited' crush which comes with a stern warning from her mother about the motivations of boys. "The First Job" details Esperanza getting a job, but the awkward interaction she has with a man attempting to take advantage of her once she is exposed to the real world. Finally in "Beautiful and Cruel" Esperanza expresses wanting to be a 'femme fatal' to be controlled by no man. By the end Esperanza seems to have grown into Cisneros's own feminist Latina voice.
Miscellaneous
There are also a series of other vignettes that are not tied to any of the themes I am teaching and do not plan to directly discuss in class. While there is still value to these portions of the book, I plan to use them for enrichment for stronger readers, whereas these will be left out for weaker or more reluctant readers. They do not necessarily hold strong significance to the end of the book.
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