The House on Mango Street, Those Who Don't quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why do outsiders come into Esperanza's neighborhood scared?

   • They have been robbed on the block once before
   • Correct answer: They assume the residents are dangerous and armed
   • They are searching for someone who owes them money
   • They have been warned away by people they trust

   Esperanza says outsiders think her people are dangerous and will attack them with shiny knives. The fear is an assumption they arrive carrying, not a response to anything that actually happens.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does Esperanza counter the outsiders' fear of the men on her block?

   • She argues that the block has very little real crime
   • Correct answer: She names each man and the family he belongs to
   • She points out that the men are all elderly now
   • She explains that the men rarely leave their homes

   Naming is her entire method. Each supposedly menacing figure turns out to be somebody's brother or somebody's Eddie V., and the menace disappears along with the anonymity.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who is the man with the crooked eye?

   • A cousin visiting the block from out of town
   • Correct answer: Davey the Baby's brother
   • A man who has only just moved onto the block
   • The father of one of Esperanza's schoolfriends

   Esperanza identifies him as Davey the Baby's brother. Only a stranger reads the crooked eye as a threat instead of as a familiar face.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Esperanza point out that Fat Boy is not fat anymore, nor a boy?

   • To show that the block has turned against him
   • Correct answer: To show that a nickname outlives what it described
   • To explain why the other men keep away from him
   • To suggest that he is about to leave the neighborhood

   The nickname stuck long after it stopped fitting, which is proof of how long the block has known him. Familiarity, not menace, is the point of the detail.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What happens when Esperanza and her own people drive into a neighborhood of another color?

   • They are stopped and questioned by strangers there
   • Correct answer: They grow frightened and roll the car windows up tight
   • They stop to visit relatives who live on that street
   • They lose their way and have to ask for directions

   Their knees tremble, the windows go up, and everyone stares straight ahead. They perform the very fear that outsiders brought onto their own block.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What is the central structural device of this vignette?

   • A flashback to an earlier moment on the block
   • Correct answer: A symmetry in which each side fears the other
   • A dialogue between Esperanza and a frightened stranger
   • A list of rules the neighborhood expects visitors to obey

   The vignette is built in two matched halves. Outsiders fear Esperanza's block in the first half, and her own people fear another block in the second.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which statement best describes how the vignette ends?

   • It resolves the fear by having the two sides finally meet
   • Correct answer: It states the cycle plainly and leaves it unresolved
   • It delivers a clear adult lesson about tolerance
   • It predicts that the neighborhood will soon change

   Esperanza closes by noting that this is how it goes and goes. There is no remedy and no adult commentary, and that restraint is what makes the observation land.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does the vignette imply about the label bad neighborhood?

   • It is applied fairly by people who study the city
   • Correct answer: It is a story told by people who do not live there
   • It is a label the residents proudly use themselves
   • It is a reputation the block earned over many years

   The danger exists in the outsiders' imagination. Everything on the block that looks threatening turns out to be ordinary to anyone who lives there.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these actually occur in Those Who Don't?

   • Esperanza names three men from her neighborhood and the families they belong to.

     Happened

   • Outsiders imagine they will be attacked with shiny knives.

     Happened

   • One of the frightened outsiders stops and speaks to Esperanza.

     Didn't happen

   • Esperanza admits that she and her own people grow afraid in a neighborhood of another color.

     Happened

   • A fight breaks out between the neighbors and a group of strangers.

     Didn't happen

   • Esperanza proposes a way for the two sides to stop fearing each other.

     Didn't happen

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does brim mean as used in the phrase: the tall one next to him in the straw brim?

    • Correct answer: The projecting outer edge of a hat
    • A woven basket carried on the shoulder
    • A loose shirt worn during hot weather
    • A narrow strip of shade beside a wall

    A brim is the projecting edge of a hat. Cisneros names the man by his hat alone, letting a small part stand in for the whole person.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does color mean as used in the phrase: a neighborhood of another color?

    • The paint used on the houses along the street
    • Correct answer: The race or ethnicity of the people who live there
    • The general mood or atmosphere of the place
    • The variety of shops found on its main street

    Color here means race. It is Cisneros's plain word for the invisible lines that divide the city into separate, mutually wary neighborhoods.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does shakity-shake describe in the phrase: our knees go shakity-shake?

    • A dance the children perform out on the block
    • Correct answer: Trembling brought on by sudden fear
    • The rattling of a car on a rough street
    • A quick, impatient tapping of the foot

    Shakity-shake is Cisneros's invented childlike word for trembling. Its sing-song sound makes adult fear register with the cadence of a nursery rhyme.

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