CC Share-Alike
Note: Return to Week 4 to read remaining poems: “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “White Lies,” and “The Mother.”
Activity 1
Click this link to read “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara.
(Optional): Click here for an audio reading of “The Lesson.”
Activity 2
This link brings you to an interesting discussion of “The Lesson” by literary critic Rena Korb from the BMCC database Literature Resource Center. It is important for you to familiarize yourself with the library’s literature databases because you will be accessing these databases later on when you write your final research essay. You can also click this link to access a PDF of the article.
Activity 3 (optional)
You may be interested in Bambara’s use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) rather than Standard American English in her writing, If so, click this link to access an interesting article, also from The BMCC library database Literature Resource Center. You can also click to access a PDF file of the article.
Activity 4
Artwork by David Rivera
Read about Sandra Cisneros, the author of The House on Mango Street on the Biography in Context website of the BMCC online library.
Activity 5
The House on Mango Street is composed of a collection of vignettes, which piece together the story of a young Mexican-American woman as she explores various facets of her identity and culture. These vignettes, as the author has remarked, work to “tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole—like beads in a necklace,” The book, with its focus on moral and psychological maturation, is often regarded as a bildungsroman.
Activity 6
Read The House on Mango Street
Activity 7
CC0
This short reading guide might help focus your ideas about the vignettes.
