Multicultual Literature for the Classroom-9th Grade: The House on Mango Street

By: Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street gives experiences from a Mexican American girl named Esperanza. Her family moves into the house on Mango Street in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. The poor areas in the city were racially segregated. In this new home she matures as she makes friends, develops crushes, and writes as a way to escape the neighborhood. She cannot wait to grow up and move away from a place where she was sexually assaulted and feels like she has no privacy. She looks up to older women as examples. Esperanza's friend Sally is more sexually mature than her and is a bad example to Esperanza. She wants to to be mature, but is also afraid of the grown up world. She went through many traumatic experiences that forced her to grow up faster. This novel is a good choice of multicultural American literature to expose to ninth graders because it shares with students the struggles of Mexican Americans who live in neighborhoods of poverty. They will learn about a different culture and what their experiences are like. Esperanza is not safe walking through the streets, playing outside, or even at her job. She was sexually assaulted more than once and women were given very little freedom. Esperanza gained an interest in boys as she got older, but did not want to be married because she saw how the other women are trapped or tied down by their children. She wanted to escape this restricting and unsafe environment. It teaches students to be grateful of where they live, but to also to be cautious of who they hang out with or where they hang out. Teenagers should make choices based on what they know is right and learn from positive examples. They should avoid being around people that make them uncomfortable and people who encourage them to make bad choices. Esperanza's experiences relate to students who are freshman in high school because they are also trying to figure out their identity. They have to make decisions about how they want to live their life and their future. They look up to others to help them and are influenced by their peers. The novel helps students to realize that people in every life style have to figure out growing up.

Problems that may come up When Teaching The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street includes many adult themes such as sexual assault. abuse, pregnancy, alcohol, smoking, stealing, and arrest. To approach these serious topics, a teacher should make the students aware of them before they start reading. If they feel to uncomfortable with the novel, they should be assigned an alternate assignment. Students should be reminded to be respectful with their comments about the book and towards others. The teacher should focus on the themes and messages of the story and not as much on the details of the adult topics. The teacher should also offer answers to questions while being cautious of what the students should be exposed too. By reading the novel ahead of time, the teacher can be aware of what the book includes.