The House on Mango Street Part Two

 

Chancals

Esperanza’s mother gets her a beautiful new dress for her cousin’s baptism but fails to get her new shoes. At the party, Esperanza is too embarrassed to dance because of her old shoes, but her uncle convinces her that she looks beautiful. Everyone at the party cheers her on as they dance, and afterward, she happily notes that a boy she likes has watched her dancing.

Hips

Esperanza and her friends are beginning to develop hips, and they discuss the purpose of the hips and suggest various reasons. Nenny attempts to participate in the discussion even though she isn’t yet developing any changes. Esperanza cites a purpose of hips that she had gleaned from Alicia and finally begins to believe that they have a musical quality to them. The girls make rhymes about their developing hips as they skip rope.

The First Job

Esperanza’s family thinks it’s time for her to get a summer job, and she decides to look for one in the future as she continues to spend her days playing with her friends in the street. Her aunt finds her a job matching negatives to photos, and Esperanza begins working at the store. The job is easy enough, but she struggles with the social aspects of it. She befriends an older man who appears slightly oriental. She is glad for the company since it means she won’t have to eat lunch alone. One day, the man asks her for a kiss because it’s his birthday. She leans in to kiss his cheek, but he grabs her and kisses her on the lips.

Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark

Esperanza’s father tells her that her grandfather has passed away. He breaks down into tears and explains that he will have to go to Mexico. Esperanza wonders how she would feel if her father, who works before everyone else to go to work, were to die. She comforts her father and holds him in her arms.

Born Bad

Esperanza and her friends pray for forgiveness for having made fun of Esperanza’s aunt Lupe before she died. Aunt Lupe was an athletic swimmer in her youth, but she later became bedridden. Esperanza liked her aunt and she would often visit her to read to her. Once she read Aunt Lupe her poem, her aunt encouraged her to keep writing, telling her that it would keep her free. Yet, they all imitated her as part of their game, and she died the following day. Esperanza believes that this means she will go to hell.

Elenita, Cards, Palm Water

Esperanza has her fortune told by Elenita, a witch woman, who lives in better conditions than most of her neighbors. She uses Tarot cards and gets Esperanza to look into a clear glass of water but Esperanza can’t quite bring herself to believe in ghosts. She asks the witch woman if there is a house in her future, and the woman tells her that she sees a house of hearts. Esperanza pays the woman and returns disheartened.

Geraldo No Last Name

Marin meets and dances with a man called Geraldo at a local get-together. They leave the hall together, but Geraldo is struck by a car. He is taken to the emergency room, but he dies there since no doctor tends to him. Marin stays at the hospital to answer the police’s questions although she doesn’t know anything about him. Esperanza wonders about Geraldo’s life of struggle, working menial jobs to send money home to Mexico, and a community that will never learn what happened to their member. 

Edna’s Ruthie

Edna is the landlord of a building on Mango Street, and she has a reputation for being mean and exploitative. Her daughter, Ruthie, got married when she was quite young and now she lives with her mother, waiting for her husband to come take her. She feels uncomfortable in the adult world and becomes paralyzed at the thought of interacting with strangers. Esperanza likes Ruthie and goes over to read to her sometimes, Ruthie appreciates Esperanza’s presence but she is unable to express it.

The Earl of Tennessee

Esperanza’s neighbor is a jukebox repairman who works at night and is rarely seen in the neighborhood. People claim that Earl is married, but everyone provides a different description. He most likely brings home several different women for a brief period.

Sire

Esperanza has a crush on a boy called Sire, who is dating a pretty girl called Lois. Sire sometimes stares at Esperanza but she never returns his stare, because her parents tell her that Sire is a bad influence. She wishes she were in Lois’s place, and wonders what it would feel like to be held by a boy, something that she hasn’t yet experienced.

Four Skinny Trees

Esperanza feels a strange kinship with the four trees outside her house because, like them, she feels that she does not belong in the barrio. The trees inspire her with their growth that progresses without regard for the concrete that surrounds them.

No Speak English

Mamacita is an overweight woman who is brought to America by her hardworking husband along with their child. She has trouble assimilating and misses Mexico. The neighbors gossip that she doesn’t come down because she is too fat, but Esperanza believes that it is because she can’t speak English. Her father tells her that it is very difficult to live in America without understanding English. Mamacita feels betrayed when her child begins to learn English.

Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and papaya Juice on Tuesdays

Rafaela is a beautiful woman, so her husband locks her in the apartment whenever he goes to play poker with his friends. She wants to go down to the bar and dance, but she has to hang outside her window and send Esperanza’s group to fetch her some juice that she then hauls up with a clothesline.

Sally

Sally is a beautiful girl from Esperanza’s school and she admires Sally for her excellent makeup skills. The boys make up vicious gossip about her, and her father forces her to remain shut up at home. Esperanza wants to be best friends with her and wishes she didn’t have to return home so quickly after school. Sally wishes she didn’t have to worry about her father, the boys, or being alienated because of her appearance.

Minerva Writes Poems

Minerva is Esperanza’s neighbor, and two years senior to her. She is married to an abusive man who leaves her, and returns periodically to beat her. She has two children and writes poems in the night. Esperanza and Minerva share their poems. Minerva comes to Esperanza after being beaten by her husband, to ask for advice, but Esperanza has none.

Bums in the Attic

Esperanza wants to live in a nice suburban house with a yard. Her family visits such houses on the weekend, but she no longer goes with them since she doesn’t want to merely look at what she can’t yet have. She decides that she will offer bums a place in her attic when she gets the house because she knows what it feels like to not have a house.

Beautiful & Cruel

Esperanza worries about her future because she feels ugly, even though her mother comforts her that she will grow more attractive as she ages. Esperanza decides that she isn’t going to wait for a rich man like her beautiful sister, but instead refuses to give them her power.

A Smart Cookie

Esperanza’s mother wishes that she had done more with her life. She enumerates her skills and gives Esperanza the example of her two friends who lead a good life without relying on men. Her mother tells her that she had dropped out of school as a child because she did not think she had nice clothes. She regrets her choices and cautions Esperanza to not be like her younger self.

What Sally Said

Sally’s father beats her often because he doesn’t want her to run away with a boy and disgrace the family as his sisters had done. Sally comes to school bruised but she defends her father. She confides in Esperanza and asks to live at her house. However, the day she brings her bag, her father follows her with tears in his eyes and takes her home. He beats her mercilessly the next time he sees her talking to a boy, and Sally has to miss school for two days.

The Monkey Garden

The neighborhood children take to playing in the garden of an abandoned house that becomes a dump yard. Sally doesn’t like playing in the dirt because she doesn’t want to get her stockings dirty. Some of the boys steal Sally’s keys and tell her to kiss them all to get them back. Sally agrees but Esperanza tries to save her. She goes to the boy’s mother, and when that fails to yield results, she takes matters into her own hands. She threatens them with a brick but the boys laugh at her and Sally accompanies them. Esperanza becomes extremely embarrassed and stares at her feet which appear clunky. She feels changed and notices that the garden feels different as well.

Red Clowns

Esperanza is sexually assaulted by a group of boys when she attends a carnival with Sally. Sally abandons her and goes away with an older boy, and Esperanza is accosted by a group of boys. She feels anger at all the women in her life who failed to tell her about the reality of sex. She continues to hear the voice of one of her assaulters, who had said, “I love you, Spanish girl.”

Linoleum Roses

Sally marries an older salesman before the end of the year. They travel to a different state where it is legal to marry a girl under the age of 14. Sally claims to be happy, but her husband beats her. He does not let her go out, talk on the phone, or even look outside the window. Sally spends her days looking at the insides of her house.

The Three Sisters

Esperanza attends the wake of her friend’s young sister. She meets a group of women, who recognize the discomfort that she feels. They call her over and tell her that she is special. They tell her to make a wish and inform her that it will come true. Later, one of the women reveals that she knows her wish, and Esperanza feels guilt about her selfish desire to leave. The woman tells her that she can leave, but she should try to visit whenever she can because she will always be on Mango Street.

Alicia & I Talking on Edna’s Steps

Esperanza is jealous of Alicia for having a place to call home, but Alicia feels that Mango Street is Esperanza’s home. She doesn’t want it to be, and can’t wait to leave. She promises to never return to Mango Street until someone makes it better. They wonder who can, and laugh at the idea that the Mayor would be ever bothered by a place like their street.

A House of My Own

Esperanza describes the house of her dreams, with a garden of flowers, and belonging to a woman rather than a man. She describes it as a clean home, full of potential like a blank paper before a poem has been written on it.

Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes

Esperanza describes herself as a storyteller and repeats the first paragraph of the book which talks about the other places that she has lived in. She believes that she will leave Mango Street one day, but she may have to return to the people who could not leave on their own.