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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 does Esperanza’s papa call Sire?

2. What bird does Esperanza compare Sally’s hair to?

3. Who listens to Esperanza’s stories?

4. What are Alicia and Esperanza talking about in this vignette?

5. What does Sally do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does her Aunt Lupe tell her that writing will keep her free?

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

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

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

5. Why does Esperanza’s father call Sire a punk?

6. 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?

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

8. What does it mean that both Esperanza is getting noticed by boys, and that she notices them watching her?

9. Who is Geraldo?

10. Why can’t Esperanza, her mother, and other neighbors and kids agree on what Earl’s “wife” looks like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What motifs reoccur in multiple vignettes? What do they represent? How are they used?

Essay Topic 2

Esperanza is named after her great-grandmother. What happens to Esperanza’s great-grandmother? Why doesn’t Esperanza want to be named after her?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the characters in the book and examine his/her real life. How does the author represent him/her in the novel? Is this an accurate representation of the character?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 630 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample