Your student is currently reading The House on Mango Street. We will discuss many of the following housing issues in class. Feel free to discuss them at home with your student, as well.
The House on Mango Street (pg.3)-
Immediately we are introduced to the Esperanza’s pride, even as a child, in
home ownership, and the disadvantages of life as a home renter. As she
retells her housing history, attention should be placed on the subpar living
conditions the family endured. Discuss events that may have lead up to a
family accepting a home in unlivable condition, and the possible reasons
they remained there. What are the rights of tenants and landlords? How
do we protect the rights of both parties?
The family dream home, the same dream home of Americans from many
different backgrounds, in unattainable. Discuss the differences between
the dream home and the home the family purchased. The pride in
ownership is marred by not attaining the dream house that was a family
goal for years. Esperanza associates much of her worth with the quality of
her home. “You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing.’
(pg 5)
Cathy Queen of Cats (pg 12)-
The last sentence (“’In the meantime they’ll just have to move a little
farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people
like us keep moving in.”) leads naturally into a discussion of White Flight
and the stereotypes / generalizations associated with it.
Ask students what examples of gentrification they have witnessed and the
feelings associated with it, from BOTH perspectives.
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