1. Where did the narrator live before she moved to The House on Mango Street? How were her previous homes different?
2. In what kind of house would she like to live? Does her new home live up to her expectations? Why not?
3. Who are the members of Esperanza’s family?
4. After whom was Esperanza named? What does her namesake’s story tell you about the status of women in Mexican society?
5. Why is Cathy’s family about to move?
6. How does Esperanza make friends with Lucy and Rachel? What makes them better friends than Cathy?
7. Who is Marin? Why is she unable to leave her house? How does she plan to change her situation? Why do Esperanza and her friends admire her?
8. How do outsiders see Esperanza’s neighborhood? How does Esperanza feel when she visits other neighborhoods?
9. Why does Rosa Vargas cry every day? Why do her children misbehave? What happens to her son Angel?
10. How does Alicia’s father treat her efforts to get an education?
11. What happens to Esperanza when she and her friends are given some cast-off shoes? How do the shoes change them? What effect do they have on the men in the neighborhood?
12. Why does Esperanza want to eat in the school canteen? How does she get her mother to help her?
13. What are the girls doing as they talk about hips? What are hips good for? What does their conversation tell you about their ages?
14. Why does this story have a misleading title? What happens to Esperanza on her first day at work? What does this episode tell you about her family and their expectations?
15. Why does Esperanza’s father cry? How does his crying make her feel?
16. What happens to Aunt Lupe? Why does Esperanza believe she deserves to go to hell? What special relationship did Esperanza have with her aunt?
17. Why does Geraldo have no last name? From the information Cisneros provides, do you believe that his death was inevitable?
18. Why is Esperanza afraid of Sire? What do her parents think of him? Why is she so curious about what he does with Lois, and why does this curiosity make her feel as though "everything is holding its breath inside me"?
19. What eight English words—or, really, phrases—does Mamacita know? What do they tell you about the ways in which Mexican immigrants relate to the "official," English-speaking culture outside their communities?
20. What is making Rafaela grow old? Who was Rapunzel, and why would Rafaela dream of having hair like hers?
21. Describe the relationship between Sally and her father. How do her schoolmates see her? What transformation takes place when Sally comes home?
22. Why does Minerva write poems? Why is she black and blue when she comes to visit Esperanza?
23. What does Esperanza’s father do for a living? Why has Esperanza stopped joining her family on their Sunday outings?
24. What is the nature of Esperanza’s "quiet war"? Against whom—or what—is she fighting?
25. How would you categorize the things Esperanza’s mother knows? What things might she not know that Esperanza does? Why do you think she left school?
26. How does the Monkey Garden change? What does Sally do that makes Esperanza so angry? From whom is she trying to save her? What eventually happens to Sally? How does Esperanza feel about her marriage?
27. How does Esperanza meet the three sisters? What kind of future do they predict for her? What is the responsibility they place on her?
28. How does the ending of The House on Mango Street complete a circle?