The affects of an unreliable narrator in The House on Mango Street is it affects the tone, characterization, and style. There are a lot of examples of those three affects. Some of those examples are on different chapters of The House on Mango Street. Characterization explained in the chapter called Earl of Tennessee. It is explained in the way that people say that Earls wife looks different ways when she asks different people. Esperanza says in the chapter We never agree on what she looks like(pg.71).
Another example of characterization can be found in the chapter called Sally. In the chapter Esperanza says The boys at school think shes beautiful (pg. 81) Characterization is explained in this chapter in the way that Sally wears make-up to school and skirts that she pulls up, but when she goes home she washes off the make-up and pulls down her skirt so her father won’t notice anything. Tone is explained in the chapter called Darius and the Clouds because a lot of people in Esperanzas school think of him as a fool. Then when one day he says something wise, something smart, people don’t think of him as such a fool. In the chapter Darius says,You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad.
(pg. 33) He also says,Here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. (pg. 33) Tone is also explained in the chaptercalledRed Clowns. Esperanza becomes very mad with Sally because Sally left her alone and some guys come and have their way with her. Esperanza saysSally, you lied.
It wasn’t what you said at all. What he did. Where he touched me. I didnt want it, Sally. (pg.99) Esperanza get very emotional about what happens to her. She becomes very mad and changes her tone in the way that she isnt the cheerful happy girl. Style is explained in the chapter called The Monkey Garden in the way that the Monkey Garden stands for the Edenic Bower.
Esperanza and her friends love to play in the garden. Esperanza says, This was a garden, a wonderful thing to look at in the spring. (pg.94) The Monkey Garden stands for the Garden of Eden. Another example of Style can be found in the chapter calledChanclas. Esperanza says, The old saddle shoes I wear to school, brown and white, the kind I get every September because they last long and they do. (pg.47)
Esperanza really hates getting the same shoes every September because they don’t look good and because it makes her feet look scuffed and round. The affect of an unreliable narrator in The House on Mango Street affects different things. Three of them are the tone, characterization, and style. There are many examples of the affects in The House on Mango Street.
