NovelGuide: The House on Mango Street: Novel Summary: And Some More

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And Some More

Summary
Rachel, Lucy, Nenny, and Esperanza are watching the clouds. While Esperanza identifies each cloud as a cumulus cloud, Nenny calls all the clouds by personal names: "Nancy. Pig-eye. Mildred." Esperanza and Lucy start to fight and insult each other, as children do.
 
Analysis
Unlike the vignettes to this point, this scene relies mostly on a "transcription" of dialogue to communicate with readers. The dialogue between the feuding girls, set against the counterpoint of Nenny's litany of cloud-naming, is a faithful representation of how young children often fight. The fight is not important for its content, apparently, but for that very youthful character it possesses. It reminds us that, at this point in the novel-as opposed to scenes to come-Esperanza and her friends are, in fact, still children. The whole image of young girls watching the clouds go by is an innocent one, and may serve to prepare readers, even subliminally, for a loss of that innocence in the rest of the book. This vignette also returns to the thematic importance of names (see "My Name")-for instance, when Rachel remarks that her cousin "got three different names." Ironically, it is Esperanza, the character who yearns for a new name, who insists on calling all of the clouds by the same name. While she is correct to do so, meteorologically speaking, it is Nenny who truly honors individuality and diversity by bestowing on each cloud a personal name.