Key Concepts Date:Main Idea The House on Mango Street – Vignettes 38-41 Pages:

Vocab Notes:

ESSENTIAL QUESTION(s):Hanging out with Sally becomes a turning point for Esperanza. What happens to herduring her time with Sally? What does she learn about sex, marriage, and love?What do the three sisters help her remember and understand?

“The Monkey Garden”

1. How did the garden Esperanza is telling us

about get its name? Why is it called monkey

garden?

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2. What makes this garden fascinating to Esperanza? _____________________________

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3. List three of the descriptions Esperanza gives:

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4. Is Esperanza a good storyteller? Can you picture the garden in your mind? List one of

the descriptions you find interesting:

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5. Esperanza uses personification in her descriptions. Personification gives inanimate

objects the characteristics of a person. Give two examples of personification:

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6. Who does Esperanza compare Eddie Vargas to? _____________________________

7. Use Google to answer who was Rip Van Winkle and explain why this is a good

comparison.

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8. Esperanza tells us that someone started a lie (=a fictional story) that the Monkey

Garden had been there “before anything.” Can you think of a mythical garden that

supposedly was there before anything else? Hint: Two people called Adam and Eve

walked in that garden. What was this garden called? ____________________________

9. Myths explain the origin of things, how

things came to be. The story of Adam

and Eve has two themes: the loss of

innocence and the exercise of free will,

making a choice which can have good

or bad consequences. What could this allusion or hint at the Garden of Eden

foreshadow? __________________________

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10. What sentence tells us that something very significant happened to Esperanza in the

Monkey Garden one day? _________________________________________________

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11. Who did Esperanza play with in the

Monkey Garden?

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12. What did Sally do?

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13. What was Sally’s game? ___________________________________________________

14. Why does Esperanza run to Tito’s mom? ______________________________________

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15. What is Tito’s mom’s reaction when Esperanza tells her about Tito and his friends with

Sally in the Garden? ______________________________________________________

16. What does Esperanza want to do? ___________________________________________

17. What does she not understand? _____________________________________________

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18. Why does Esperanza feel so upset she wants her heart to stop beating? What do you

think she realizes? What do you think she has lost? (think of the allusion to the Garden

of Eden)

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“Red Clowns”

1. Why is Esperanza angry at Sally?

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2. What happened to Esperanza at the

carnival?

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3. Who lied?

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4. What exactly is the lie? _________________________________________________

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“Linoleum Roses”

1. How old was Sally when she got married?

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2. Why does Esperanza think Sally got married?

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3. Sally says she’s in love and she’s happy. What are

indicators that she might be lying?

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“The Three Sisters”

1. What is the reason the three sisters come to visit?

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2. The three sisters tell Esperanza her name is a good name and that she is special and will

go very far. How does this connect us back to the very beginning of Esperanza’s story?

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3. What wish does Esperanza make? ___________________________________________

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4. What does the sister with marble hands tell Esperanza she must remember?

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ESSENTIAL QUESTION – ANSWER: