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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What color is her house on Mango Street?

2. Why will Esperanza come back to Mango Street?

3. When does Earl work?

4. What does she tell the school about her blue marks on her body?

5. What does Esperanza promise to never forget?

Short Essay Questions

1. One of the aunts tells Esperanza that she will always be Mango Street. What did she mean by this?

2. Why does Esperanza feel a special kinship with the trees outside her window?

3. Esperanza wants a nice house and wants to live on a hill, but she believes that she’ll be different than the others who do so. How does she believe that she will be different?

4. What is Esperanza hoping to hear when she has her fortune told?

5. Why does Esperanza say she’ll allow “bums in the attic”?

6. Why did Marin stay with him in the emergency room?

7. Esperanza has her fortune told, and Elenita tells her that she sees a “home in the heart”. What could this mean for Esperanza’s future?

8. What is Sally’s relationship like with her parents?

9. Why does Esperanza believe Mamacita is sad?

10. How has Esperanza begun her “own quiet war”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In “Hips”, Esperanza, Nenny and their friends are discussing the girls who are growing and maturing. They are both excited by this new power of sexuality and terrified of it, why is this?

Essay Topic 2

What is the effect of the short first-person vignettes, rather than longer chapters? Why do you think Cisneros chose this form over something more traditional? What other forms could it be compared to?

Essay Topic 3

Esperanza wants to escape The House on Mango Street and all that that life included. Based on her drive, ambition and support, will Esperanza be able to leave Mango Street behind?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 697 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample