The House on Mango Street, The Family of Little Feet quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. How do Esperanza, Lucy, and Rachel come to have high heels?

   • They buy them with money saved from running errands
   • Correct answer: A woman from the family of little feet gives them a bag of old shoes
   • They borrow them from a mother's closet without asking
   • They find them left behind on the steps of the corner grocery

   The shoes arrive as a hand-me-down gift in a paper bag, which is why even the girls' glamour is somebody else's castoff.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What three pairs of shoes are in the paper bag?

   • Correct answer: A lemon pair, a red pair, and a once-white pair now pale blue
   • A black pair, a brown pair, and a scuffed silver evening pair
   • A red pair, a green pair, and a pair with worn wooden heels
   • A white pair, a gray pair, and a pair missing both its buckles

   Color carries the magic in this vignette, and the faded blue pair quietly signals that the shoes have already had another life.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What changes for the girls the moment they put the heels on?

   • They can finally reach the shelves behind the grocery counter
   • They realize the shoes are too big and stuff them with paper
   • Correct answer: They discover they have long legs that look like a woman's
   • They decide to keep the shoes secret from everyone on the block

   The transformation is bodily and instant — the girls suddenly read as adult to anyone who looks at them, which is what drives the rest of the day.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Mr. Benny object to the shoes?

   • He says they are stolen and demands to know who owns them
   • He says they will ruin the sidewalk in front of his grocery
   • He says the girls owe him money and must hand the shoes over
   • Correct answer: He says the shoes are dangerous and the girls are too young for them

   Mr. Benny threatens to call the cops rather than offering any help, putting the danger on the girls' choice of shoes instead of on the street.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does the bum man on the stoop offer Rachel?

   • Correct answer: A dollar in exchange for a kiss
   • A ride home in a passing taxicab
   • A second pair of shoes he says he found
   • A job sweeping the sidewalk outside the tavern

   The offer converts admiration into a transaction, and it is aimed at a child who is still treating the attention as a game.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Who gets the girls away from the tavern, and what does that show?

   • Mr. Benny, showing that adults on the block do watch out for them
   • Esperanza, showing that she is the most cautious of the three
   • Correct answer: Lucy, showing that the girls have only each other for protection
   • Rachel, showing that she understood the danger from the start

   No adult intervenes at any point in the vignette. Lucy pulls Rachel away and leads them home, so the rescue comes entirely from inside the group.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How does the vignette's sequence of encounters build meaning?

   • It repeats the same reaction three times to show how boring the block is
   • Correct answer: It moves from scolding to catcalls to a proposition, escalating the threat
   • It alternates friendly and hostile adults to show the neighborhood is divided
   • It begins with the worst encounter so the rest of the walk feels safe

   One walk down the block becomes a compressed rehearsal of what adult attention will demand, each stop worse than the last.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What is the effect of Cisneros ending the vignette with nobody complaining about the discarded shoes?

   • It shows the girls have forgotten the whole afternoon already
   • It suggests the mother has punished them and they are afraid to speak
   • It proves the girls plan to find replacement shoes the next day
   • Correct answer: It shows the girls gladly choose childhood when the exit is offered

   The understatement is the argument: given a way out of the adult world they just sampled, all three take it without a word.

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9. 9

   Question 9. How does the fairy-tale opening function in this vignette?

   • Correct answer: It sets up an enchantment that the tavern scene deliberately breaks
   • It identifies the family that will adopt Esperanza later in the book
   • It signals that everything in the vignette is only a dream
   • It provides comic relief before a lighthearted afternoon of dress-up

   Cisneros lets the storybook cadence and the Cinderella moment run before the street answers them, so the genre itself is being warned against.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these events actually occur in The Family of Little Feet?

    • The girls trade the shoes among themselves until each pair fits.

      Happened

    • Mr. Benny threatens to call the cops if the girls do not take the shoes off.

      Happened

    • Esperanza's mother takes the shoes away as soon as the girls come home.

      Didn't happen

    • A man on a stoop asks Rachel to kiss him for a dollar.

      Happened

    • The girls sell the high heels back to the corner grocery.

      Didn't happen

    • The shoes are hidden under a bushel basket on the back porch.

      Happened

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'dangerous' mean as Mr. Benny uses it in 'Them are dangerous, he says' about the girls' high heels?

    • Poorly made and likely to fall apart while walking
    • Correct answer: Likely to bring harm, because of the attention they attract
    • Expensive enough that someone might steal them
    • Uncomfortable in a way that could injure the girls' feet

    Mr. Benny is not worried about the girls tripping. He means the shoes make them look grown, and he treats that appearance as the source of the risk.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'stoop' mean in the phrase 'a bum man on the stoop'?

    • A narrow alley running behind a row of buildings
    • A wooden crate used as a seat on the sidewalk
    • Correct answer: The front steps or small porch at a building's entrance
    • A low wall separating two neighboring yards

    A stoop is the entry steps of a city building, a normal place to sit and watch the street, which is what makes the encounter feel ordinary until it is not.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'lemon' mean in the phrase 'the lemon shoes for the red shoes'?

    • Correct answer: A pale, sharp shade of yellow
    • Something faulty or broken
    • A scent applied to worn leather
    • A rounded, old-fashioned shoe shape

    Cisneros uses a noun as a color word, and lemon reads as more vivid and particular than simply calling the shoes yellow.

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