Mango Street darkens in this section of chapters, which ends with Esperanza’s questions concerning her life and future. In between, she experiences death, which affects her in complex ways. Her father’s grief shakes her; suddenly she is in the position of comforting him as though he were the child and she the adult. At the same time, she is suddenly aware that he, too, will die. Her aunt’s death causes her to feel great guilt, because she and her friends have mocked this sick woman’s grotesque mannerisms.
