even her interactions with people that she sees as friends. When she tries to make friends with two other girls, Cathy's perceptions of them are also colored by her prejudice and she tries to keep Esperanza away from them.

Another significant event is Esperanza's first job. It's at Peter Pan Photo Finishers; she's too young to work there but can lie about her age. It's a place where she learns some of the difficulties of being a grown up. She doesn't know whether she's allowed to rest and so she copies two other women who she assumes know what they're doing. She doesn't know who to eat with or where to take a break. It's clear Esperanza feels out of place, but she's learning to navigate the adult world. Unfortunately, she meets a bad man who appears to befriend her. Then he asks for a birthday kiss, grabs her, and kisses her.

In the vignette entitled "A Rice Sandwich," Esperanza asks her mother to pack her a lunch so that she can eat at the school's canteen. However, the nuns do not allow Esperanza to eat with the children in the canteen and make Esperanza point to her home. Esperanza is forced to identify her ugly home and begins to cry. She continues to cry during lunch in front of her classmates and is no longer allowed to eat with them at school. This vignette is significant because it illustrates how poverty personally affects Esperanza. Disparaging moments like the one depicted in "A Rice Sandwich" make Esperanza the strong, independent woman that she becomes later on in life.

Another significant vignette entitled "Red Clowns" portrays Esperanza's reaction to being sexually assaulted at a carnival. Esperanza goes to a carnival with Sally, who leaves her behind to wait alone by the red clowns. Esperanza's hysteric reaction to her attacker is revealed in this story, and it is implied that she is raped. Esperanza's traumatic experience is another significant moment in her life that shapes her outlook and perspective. It also highlights the theme examining gender roles throughout the Latin American community.

There are many important events in this book, which interweaves many family stories. I like to start with the first major event, which is the Corderos moving into the house on Mango Street. It is a major event for them (their first house), and is therefore full of expectation and emotion.

Another event that defines the book is when Rachel and Lucy new little sister dies. This loss is sad in itself, of course, but it is also when Esperanza gets her palm read. This sets up her wish in the final chapter, and the expectation that it might happen: that she might have her own house some day.

If I were to consider the many causes and effects in Sandra Cisnero's The House on Mango Street, I would focus on the events that support the theme of the novel that growing up as an immigrant in a poor neighborhood can have detrimental effects. The novel is made up of a series of short stories about Esperanza, her family, and her neighbors living on Mango Street. All of the characters are working class and many of them, like Esperanza and her family, are immigrants who are struggling to make it in the United States. A lot of the stories are about the struggles of growing up, especially for immigrant girls. Many of them face hardships that are the result of causes out of their control. For example, Esperanza's friend, Sally, is abused by her father because she is very attractive and gets a lot of attention from boys. He is so worried that she will turn out like his sisters (who must have had problems with men), that he hits her and doesn't let her leave the house. As a result, she runs off and gets married very young to escape her father's abuse. There are many more examples in the novel that show how growing up as an immigrant in a poor neighborhood could have negative effects.

One cause and effect relationship that occurs in The House on Mango Street has to do with Esperanza's lie to the nun about where she lives.  In the chapter titled "A Rice Sandwich," the nun insists that Esperanza go home to eat lunch.  She then asks Esperanza to point out the window to her house.  Esperanza is embarrassed, so the nun points to a row of degraded houses a few blocks away from the school.  Esperanza knows that she does not live there, but she lies and says that she does.  The nun points to these dilapidated houses because she assumes the worst about Esperanza and her family's economic condition--her own prejudice causes her to point at the worst houses she sees on the block.  Esperanza lies because she is ashamed of her family's poverty--she may recall a time in the past when another nun pointed to her house and asked her if she lived "There?", suggesting that the home was reprehensible.  The thoughts and misunderstandings that people have regarding socioeconomic class factor into these two cause and effect relationships.