RLA 8.1

Red Clowns

1. What happens to Esperanza at the carnival? Why does she say Sally lies to her?

2. What do you think the red clowns might represent in this story?

Linoleum Roses

1. What is the significance of the title of this chapter? What do the linoleum roses represent?

2. Approximately, how old is Esperanza at this point in the story?

The Three Sisters

1. What are the signs or superstitions that signal the death of the baby?

2. What do you think Esperanza wishes for?

3. Why does the sister with the marble hands tell Esperanza that she must “remember to come back for the others”?

Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps

1. How much time has passed since the beginning of the book? How are Guadalajara and Mango Street alike? 2. Why does Alicia think it is important for Esperanza to think of Mango Street as her home and return to it someday?

A House of My Own

1. Why do you think Esperanza describes her house as “clean as paper before the poem”?

Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes

1. Where is Esperanza in this last chapter? How does she manage to escape from Mango Street?

2. Why does she describe herself as a girl who “didn’t want to belong”? This is a coming-of-age novel. What has Esperanza learned about herself in the past year? How has she changed her attitude toward Mango Street?

3. Why do you think the following passage from the first chapter is repeated in the last chapter? “We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.”