And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair, like fur

Advertisement - Guide continues below

Previous Next

Family

Chapter 1Esperanza Cordero

By the time we got to Mango Street we were six – Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me. (1.1)

Esperanza introduces her family in the first paragraph of the first story.

Chapter 2Esperanza Cordero

Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos' hair is think and straight. He doesn't need to comb it. Nenny's hair is slippery – slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur. (2.1)

Esperanza uses hair to illustrate the differences in her family's physical appearances. But this doesn't seem to be a way of dividing the family – rather, it comes across as a celebration of the differences found in their family unit.

Chapter 3Esperanza Cordero

Nenny is too young to be my friend. She's just my sister and that was not my fault. You don't pick your sisters, you just get them and sometimes they come like Nenny. (3.2)

Esperanza's statement seems funny to us, because we can relate – a lot of kids feel this way about their little brothers or sisters.

Chapter 4 Esperanza Cordero

My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. (4.3)

Esperanza admires her great-grandmother's spirited personality. It seems she may have inherited more from her great-grandmother than her name.

Chapter 7Esperanza Cordero

Look at that house, I said, it looks like Mexico.

Rachel and Lucy look at me like I'm crazy, but before they can let out a laugh, Nenny says: Yes, that's Mexico all right. That's what I was thinking exactly. (7.4)

It means a lot to Esperanza that her little sister understands her perspective. Even though she's too young for Esperanza to consider her a friend, Nenny understands what Esperanza is trying to convey in a way that her friends do not.

Nenny and I don't look like sisters…not right away. Not the way you can tell with Rachel and Lucy who have the same fat popsicle lips like everybody else in their family. But me and Nenny, we are more alike than you would know. Our laughter for example. (7.1)

Esperanza seems to recognize that certain similarities are more important than physical ones. She seems to consider the fact that she and Nenny have the same laughter to be a stronger bond than if they looked alike.

Chapter 20 Esperanza Cordero

If you don't get them you may turn into a man. Nenny says this and she believes it. She is this way because of her age.

That's right, I add before Lucy or Rachel can make fun of her. She is stupid alright, but she is my sister. (20.5)

This is classic older sibling syndrome – Esperanza picks on her little sister all the time, but she won't let anyone else make fun of Nenny.

Chapter 22Mama and Papa

Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Está muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don't know what to do. (22.1)

The use of Spanish in this scene creates a feeling of intimacy and reminds us of Esperanza's family heritage. It's unclear whether Esperanza's Papa speaks Spanish to her here because he's talking about his family in Mexico, or whether they speak Spanish at home more frequently.

Chapter 23Esperanza Cordero

Maybe she was embarrassed it took so many years. The kids who wanted to be kids instead of washing dishes and ironing their papa's shirts, and the husband who wanted a wife again.

And then she died, my aunt who listened to my poems. (23.19)

Soon after the death of her Papa's father, Esperanza experiences the death of a relative that she's closer to – her Aunt Lupe.

Chapter 37Esperanza Cordero

Until the way Sally tells it, he just went crazy, he just forgot he was her father between the buckle and the belt.

You're not my daughter, you're not my daughter. And then he broke into his hands. (37.6)

The violence that Sally's father does to her goes along with his disavowal of their relationship.

Esperanza Cordero

Every week Edna is screaming at somebody, and every week somebody has to move away […] But Ruthie lives here and Edna can't throw her out because Ruthie is her daughter.

Edna and Ruthie's relationship illustrates the idea of familial obligation – we're not sure whether Edna would kick Ruthie out if she could.

Previous Next

More on The House on Mango Street Navigation

Tired of ads?

Join today and never see them again.

What types of things does the narrator compare her mother's hair to?

Why did the corderos have to move from the flat on Loomis Street?