I lik jjjc As the novel opens, Cisneros addresses the problem of poverty and the suffering of someone in it. In the first vignette, "The House on Mango Street", Esperanza has recently moved into a new house. One of the nun caretakers at Esperanza's school saw her outside her house. When asked where she lived Esperanza showed her and the nun replied "you live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded" (Cisneros 5). The nun makes Esperanza feels sad and that she isn't good enough. This is an example of one class looking down on another which is one of Cisneros's lessons. This ties into another story called "Gil's furniture bought and sold", which is about Esperanza goings to a cheap store and the owner showing her a music box. The store owner doesn't even turn on the lights for Esperanza because he assumes that she isn't wealthy enough to buy anything. The class looking down on another class issue is very common in esperanzas early life. In the vignette "Cathy Queen on Cats", Cisneros writes about Esperanza's neighbor, Cathy who is moving away from the neighborhood because a bunch of Mexicans are moving in. She says "then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad"(Cisneros 12) Cathy's negative attitude towards someone of a different race is common of upperclassmen of Esperanza's area. Cathy thinks she's better then all of the other people on the neighborhood just because she is white. She also goes to say that she is related to the queen of France which makes her higher on the totem pole. Higher classes looking down on lower classes relates to the vignette "Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin", Esperanza meets a family with a lot of poverty based problems. Louie lives in a house like Esperanza's and one day his cousin comes by. Louis cousin was in a stolen car and uses it to drive around the kids and give them a chance to do something they probably won't ever get to do again. Once the cops
