1. Begin memorizing: "Is this a dagger which I see before me..." through "...the curtained sleep."lines 44-63 DUE DATE: January 23.
You will stand and perform the soliloquy before the class. I will look for fluency, vocal variation, and characterization. Keep in mind that this soliloquy offers the perfect opportunity to explore the theme of madness.
House on Mango Street
2. Read the following quotes from and about Sandra Cisneros. What themes or motifs do you think she might address in this novel? (Just think about this.)
"As a person growing up in a society where the class norm was superimposed on a television screen, I couldn't understand why our home wasn't all green lawns and white wood like the ones in 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Father Knows Best.'"
"The meaning of literary success is that I could change the way someone thinks about my community, my gender, or my class."
3.
Read the following vignettes from the novel:
"The House on Mango Street" (read for discussion and warm up)
"Hairs" (read for discussion)
"Boys and Girls" (read for discussion)
"My Name" (read and respond to the following)
4. Names are very important to the characters in the following excerpts. Read each selection and consider why each character places value on his or her name.
from: Othello
By William Shakespeare
[Iago to Othello]
He that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
from: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
by Ernest J. Gaines
[A major in the union army is talking to a young slave girl.]
“Well, just call me Mr. Brown,” he said. “And I’m go’n call you something else ‘sides Ticey.
Ticey is a slave name, and I don’t like slavery. I’m go’n call you Jane,” he said. “That’s right,
I’ll call you Jane. That’s my girl’s name back there in Ohio. You like for me to call you that?”
I stood there grinning like a little fool. I rubbed my foot with my big toe and just stood there
grinning. The other Troops was grinning at me, too.
“Yes,” he said, “I think you do like that name. Well, from now on your name is Jane. Not
Ticey no more. Jane. Jane Brown. Miss Jane Brown. When you get older you can change it to
what else you want. But till then your name is Jane Brown.”
[Later, the mistress of the plantation is talking to Jane.]
“You little wench, didn’t you hear me calling you?” she said. I raised my head high and
looked her straight in the face and said: “You called me Ticey. My name ain’t no Ticey no more,
it’s Miss Jane Brown. And Mr. Brown say catch him and tell him if you don’t like it.”
My mistress’ face got red, her eyes got wide, and for about half a minute she just stood there
gaping at me. Then she gathered up her dress and started running for the house. That night when
the master and the rest of them came in from the swamps she told my master I had sassed her in
front of the Yankees. My master told two of the other slaves to hold me down. One took my
arms, the other one took my legs. My master jecked up my dress and gived my mistress the whip
and told her to teach me a lesson. Every time she hit me she asked my what I said my name was.
I said Jane Brown. She hit me again: what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown.
My mistress got tired beating me and told my master to beat me some. He told her that was
enough, I was already bleeding.” (Pgs. 8,9)
from: When I Was Puerto Rican
by Esmeralda Santiago
[Mami talks to her daughter Negi about her name.]
Delsa’s black curly hair framed a heart-shaped face with tiny pouty lips and round eyes thick
with lashes. Mami called her Munequita, Little Doll. Norma’s hair was the color of clay, her
yellow eyes slanted at the corners, and her skin glowed the same color as the inside of a yam.
Mami called her La Colorá, the red girl. I thought I had no nickname until she told me my name
wasn’t Negi but Esmeralda.
“You’re named after your father’s sister, who is also your god mother. You know her as Titi
Merín.”
“Why does everyone call me Negi?”
“Because when you were little you were so black, my mother said you were a negrita [a word
of endearment meaning “little black one”]. And we all called you Negrita, and it got shortened to
Negi.”
“So Negi means I’m black?”
“It’s a sweet name because we love you, Negrita.” She hugged and kissed me.
“Does anyone call Titi Merin Esmeralda?”
“Oh, sure. People who don’t know her well–the government, her boss. We all have our
official names, and then our nicknames, which are like secrets that only the people who love us
use.” (Pgs. 13, 14)
from: The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
“At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof
of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as
thick as sister’s name–Magdalena–which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least can come
home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza.
I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one
nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X
will do.” (Pg. 11)
PERSONAL HONOR
CULTURAL IDENTITY
INDICATOR OF SELF-WORTH
SYMBOL OF FAMILY LOVE
ANCESTRAL CONNECTION
THIS IS NOT A FORMAL ESSAY...JUST WRITE DOWN SOME DETAILED NOTES AS TO WHAT THE AUTHORS SEEM TO CONVEY.
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