1. The House on Mango Street
Literary Terms & Vocabulary

2. Research Activity
Get into your groups and create a poster to present to the class. Each poster must include the information you found, including the website or source, in a well-organized manner so that the rest of the class can learn and benefit from your findings.

3. Genres: Forming Your Own Conclusion
Children’s literature
Autobiography
Short story
Poetry
Novel
Women’s studies
Essay
Ethnic literature

4. Reading to Infer Author’s Interests & Possible Themes
“As a person growing up in a society where the class norm was superimposed on a television screen, I couldn’t understand why our home wasn’t all green lawns and white wood like the ones in “Leave It to Beaver…” “’The meaning of literary success,’ she [Cisneros] declares, ‘is that I could change the way someone thinks about my community, or my gender, or my class.’” “Cisneros’s brothers sought to control and mold her according to this dominating male-oriented ideology so much so that she later professed that she felt as if she had ‘seven fathers’ instead of one. Consequently, she confesses in a 1990 interview: ‘to this day when any man tells me to do something in a certain way, the hair on the back of my neck just stands up.’”

5. What themes or motifs do you think Cisneros might address in the novel?
Growing up or coming of age
Injustices society places on women, Latin-Americans, or the poor
Struggle for identity when caught between cultures
Cultural influence on sibling relationships

6. Day 1
Style: the manner of expression of a particular writer produced by: choice of words, sentence structures, use of literary devices, rhythm, and other elements of composition
Many writers have their own particular style
Some types of style are scientific, expository, poetic, or journalistic
Example: an article from a magazine or a newspaper is written in a different style than one from a scientific journal (Think of language and how it differs)
Newspaper: journalistic, factual but may be persuasive or biased, should appeal to a wide variety of readers
Scientific journal: scientific, solely factual, may only appeal to readers who share same scientific knowledge

7. Day 1 Vignette: a short, well-written sketch or descriptive scene
Does not have a plot, which would make it a story, but it does reveal something about the elements in it
It may reveal character, tone, or mood
It may convey a theme or idea of its own
It is an important description of a scene or a character
The House on Mango Street is written in a series of vignettes

8. Day 1
Voice: the quality of a piece of writing that makes it the author’s own
authors work to develop a distinct voice, so listen for hers as you read

9. Determining Theme
In identifying the theme, it is necessary to recognize the human experience, motivation, or condition suggested by the literature.
List the subjects of the piece – use words or phrases but not sentences – there are many subjects in a literary work
Write a sentence in which you describe what the author is saying about a subject.
Style Analysis – Putting it All Together
After annotating a text through an examination of the diction, syntax, point of view, and tone, ask---What is the effect of these devices? How do the devices contribute to the theme?

10. Direct VS. Indirect Characterization
Characterization: authors create characters by giving them physical attributes, thoughts, and feelings.
These traits are developed through indirect characterization: what a character says, does, thinks

11. Machismo Culture
The Dictionary of Mexican Cultural Code Words defines Machismo as “…the repudiation of all feminine’ virtues such as unselfishness, kindness, frankness, and truthfulness.”

12. There was an old woman…
What is the role of a mother in a child’s life?
What is the role of a father in a child’s life?
If the father or mother is not in the home, what happens? Is it possible for the single parent to fulfill both of these roles? If so, how? Consider the responsibility for being both a mother and a father. Do you think a child suffers any consequences? If so, what?

13. Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman: a novel depicting someone’s growth from childhood to maturity
The protagonist grows, learns, and changes in order to take his or her place in the world
Bildungsroman is a German word that literally means “a novel of formation”
It is often referred to as a “coming of age” story

14. Independently read & annotate “My Tocaya,” looking for the following elements:
Style The author’s unique way of communicating ideas through literature. Theme The central idea or message in a work of literature. Tone The attitude a writer takes toward the subject. Voice Writer’s unique way of using language to convey his/her personality through writing

15. Figurative Language Assignment
The House on Mango Street
“Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor” (9).
Create a visual representation of your favorite literary device example from HOMS. What you need to include on your paper:
Figurative language example & pg. #
Explanation of device used (journals)
Book’s title
Picture with color

16. “Geraldo No Last Name”
Social commentary: the act of expressing an opinion on the nature of society
May be obvious or a slightly hidden message in literature

17. “Geraldo No Last Name”
Describe Geraldo using the details in the passage. Tell what the details reveal about him. Explain Marin’s feelings as they are described in the passage. List and comment on the details in the passage that support your inferences about her feelings. Cisneros’s style in “Geraldo No Last Name” is characterized by a combination of complete and fragmented sentences. How does this syntax reflect the nature of the story?

18. In-Class Writing
Freewrite for 15 minutes about a time in your childhood where you felt like something changed because you were growing up. How old were you? What were you doing? Why did you feel this way? Did you leave someone behind through the process? Were you ever the one “left behind” by an older someone else growing up? Fill out a SOAPSTone for yourself then begin writing. There is no word or page limit.