The House on Mango Street Vignettes 26 44

The House on Mango Street Vignettes 26 -44

26 Edna’s Ruthie • Esperanza describes Ruthie. She is the adult daughter of Edna, who owns a nearby building and is always evicting people. Ruthie, unlike Edna, “likes to play. ” She wears mismatched socks and laughs to herself, whistles expertly, and loves candy. But she feels uncomfortable in stores, and is very dependent on her mother. She says that she is married and that her husband will come that weekend to take her home, but he never comes, and Esperanza doesn’t understand why Ruthie lives on Mango Street if she doesn’t have to. She loves books, and has her own sense of poetry. When Esperanza memorizes and recites “The Walrus and the Carpenter” just for her, Ruthie says nothing for some time, then finally tells her, “You have the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen. ”

27 The Earl of Tennessee • Earl lives in Esperanza’s neighborhood. He speaks with a Southern accent and wears a felt hat all the time. He works nights, and complains during the day when the children play too loudly. Everyone thinks he has a wife, but he has been seen taking several different women into his house at night, none of whom stay very long.

28 Sire • Sire is an older boy who stares at Esperanza when she walks past his house. She tries to stare back, to show him she isn’t afraid, but she is in over head and frightens herself and shocks him by staring too long. Sire’s girlfriend, Lois, arrives. Esperanza is fascinated, because Lois is petite and pretty and she and Sire stay out late together. Esperanza longs for a boyfriend, but Mrs. Cordero tells her daughter that people like Lois and Sire should be avoided.

29 Four Skinny Trees • Esperanza feels close to the four trees the city planted outside her window. Like her, she says, they are skinny and don’t belong there, but also like her, they are strong and willful. They grow through concrete. “Their strength is secret. ”

30 No Speak English • Mamacita is a very large woman whose husband has brought her and their child from Mexico to Mango Street. She never leaves her apartment, and refuses to learn English, pining every day for Mexico, to the disgust of her husband. Then her baby boy sings a Pepsi commercial he heard on TV, and Mamacita becomes hysterical, crying, “No speak English!”

31 Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays • Rafaela is a young woman married to a man who keeps her locked up when he goes out, because he is afraid she is so beautiful she’ll run away from him. She dreams of dancing, and asks Esperanza and her friends to buy her a coconut or papaya juice, which she retrieves with a rope she throws down from her window.

32 Sally • Sally is a beautiful girl who wears perfect, Egyptian-looking makeup and has no girl friends, since she got into a fight with her best friend Cheryl. Now she has no one to giggle over boys with. Esperanza does not want to believe what the boys say about her, or that, like her mother says, for Sally to act so grown up is dangerous. Esperanza empathizes with Sally, who has to remove her makeup and change her clothes before she gets home, and can never go out. She wonders whether Sally would like to leave home forever. She says she understands that all Sally wants is “to love and to love, ” to “dream and dream, ” and she doesn’t blame her.

33 Minerva Writes Poems • Minerva is only a little bit older than Esperanza, but she has two children, who she is raising alone since her husband left, just like Minerva’s father left her mother. Minerva and her husband fight and make up very frequently, and she comes to Esperanza’s house black and blue, and asks her what to do. She and Esperanza often read their poems to each other, and are friends, but Esperanza doesn’t know what to tell her.

34 Bums in the Attic • Esperanza has stopped going along on weekends when her family drives by the big houses her father works at, staring admiringly. She feels ashamed of their obvious envy, though she does not let her family know this. She is sick of being jealous, and of listening to her mother say, “When we win the lottery. . . ” She is determined to get her own house, and be welcoming to less fortunate people---unlike the people her father works for. She says she will happily invite bums to live in her attic.

35 Beautiful and Cruel • Esperanza’s mother reassures her that one day her clothes will stay clean and she will look neater. Esperanza is not so sure she wants this, however. She does not want to be docile and pretty; she wants to be “beautiful and cruel, ” using her sexuality to control men, like a woman from the movies.

36 A Smart Cookie • Esperanza’s mother tells her to stay in school, so that she can be independent and realize her ambitions. Her mother tells her that she herself left school young because she was ashamed of her shabby clothing. Disgusted with herself now, she urges Esperanza not to make the same mistake.

37 What Sally Said • Sally confides in Esperanza that her father beats her because she talks to boys. In public, she says that she simply falls down a lot. Sally decides to live with Esperanza for a while, but her father comes to the house and pleads forgiveness, and she goes home with him. Soon after, he beats her again, even more severely.

38 The Monkey Garden • The garden is where the children play when they want to get away from the adults. One day Sally is standing at the edge of the garden, talking to boys, and though Esperanza would rather run around with the younger kids, she approaches Sally. The boys have taken Sally’s keys and tell her she must kiss them in order to get them back. She laughingly agrees. This makes Esperanza uncomfortable, and she tries to stop it, but the others just make fun of her and make her feel foolish. She runs away, crying and wanting to disappear. She tells us it is the last time she goes to the garden.

39 Red Clowns • Sally takes Esperanza to a carnival, then leaves with a boy, telling Esperanza to wait for her. While waiting, Esperanza is molested by a number of boys, one of whom says to her, “I love you, Spanish girl. ” Sally never comes back.

40 Linoleum Roses • Sally gets married at the eighth grade. Her husband will not let her go out or see her friends very often, and he has a temper, but she says she is in love and enjoys looking at all the things they own in their little apartment.

41 The Three Sisters • Aunts of Lucy and Rachel, the sisters are mysterious, almost witchlike. They inform Esperanza that she is special and tell her to make a wish. She does, and then one of the sisters tells her privately to make sure that when she leaves, she will come back for those who cannot go as easily as she. Esperanza is shocked that the woman can seemingly read her mind.

42 Alicia and I Talking on Edna’s Steps • Esperanza tells Alicia she will not return to Mango Street until someone fixes it up, even though Alicia says that Mango is part of Esperanza whether she likes it or not. The girls consider who might improve the street, and laugh at the idea of the mayor taking an interest in the project.

43 A House of My Own • Esperanza wants a house that belongs only to her, where she does not have to pick up after someone else, where everything is organized the way she likes it, and where she can write.

44 Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes • Esperanza likes to tell stories, and realizes that writing about Mango Street can sometimes make the pain of it go away. She vows to do as the Sister told her, and return for those she left behind. She understands that Mango Street belongs, and does not belong, to her-that it is part of her life, but she need not be controlled by it.