How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
All around, the neighborhood of roofs, black-tarred and A-framed, and in their gutters, the balls that never came back down to earth […] and there at the end of the block, looking smaller still, our house with its feet tucked under like a cat. (9.4).
Seen from above, Esperanza's house looks even smaller than it usually does. Still, Esperanza doesn't describe it here with her usual bitterness. Maybe her changed perspective on the house causes her to feel less disappointed in it for a moment.
Quote #5
Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared […] But we aren't afraid. We know the guy with the crooked eye is Davey the Baby's brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, that's Rosa's Eddie V., and the big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he's Fat Boy, though he's not fat anymore nor a boy. (12.1)
Though Esperanza often says she feels like she doesn't belong on Mango Street, in this paragraph she expresses a sense of ownership or belonging, referring to it as "our neighborhood."
Quote #6
Only thing I can't understand is why Ruthie is living on Mango Street if she doesn't have to, why is she sleeping on a couch in her mother's living room when she has a real house all her own, but she says she's just visiting and next weekend her husband's going to take her home. But the weekends come and go and Ruthie stays. (26.8)
To Esperanza at this point, the idea of a real house in the suburbs sounds like an appealing place to call home. The mention of Ruthie's husband who never comes to get her is a little ominous, however – we suspect that something bad may have happened to Ruthie.