The document compares a poem called "How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name" to a vignette from The House on Mango Street called "My Name". Both works are written in first person and describe how the narrator received their name. In the poem, the narrator's English name Nellie is difficult for her Chinese teacher to pronounce, so she is given a Chinese name by her teacher and parents. In the vignette, the narrator Esperanza dislikes the meanings of her Spanish name and wishes to choose a new name that represents who she truly is. Both narrators grapple with cultural identities reflected by their names.

1. Siriben Somboon
English 12 Period 4
Comparative Essay Poem and Vignette
The poem “How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” written by Nellie Wong is compared to the
vignette “My Name” in the book of The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros. Both the
poem and the vignette are very similar to each other.
The poem, “How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” is written in first person which shows how a
young girl (the narrator) got her name, from “Nellie” to “Nah Lei” to “Lai Oy”. The narrator of the poem
is bicultural, Chinese American who lives in United States. Due to the narrator not having a Chinese
name, it can be concluded that the narrator is born in the States which they do not need a Chinese
name. The narrator’s English name is Nellie. When the narrator goes to the Chinese school, the teacher
could not pronounce her name properly, she “stressed the l’s, whinnying like a horse”. The author uses
sound imagery to emphasize how difficult it is for the teacher to pronounce the narrator’s English name.
Then the narrator tells how she got her Chinese name; first the teacher gives her a new name, Nah Lei,
which means where or which place. However when the narrator tells her parents her new Chinese name
that the teacher gave to her, her parents dislike the Chinese name that the narrator’s teacher gave to
her, so the parents give her a new Chinese name, “Lai Oy”, which means beautiful love or lost pocket
depends on the context. In addition, there is a tone of excitement from the narrator because she runs
home/to school to announce her Chinese name. However, in the future the narrator might be confused
with her identity because she has 2 names which are from different culture (Nellie from Western culture
and Lai Oy from Chinese culture). In comparison, the vignette is also written in first person which shows
how a young girl (the narrator) got her name, “Esperanza”. The narrator of the poem is also bicultural,
Mexican American who lives in United States. Conversely with the poem, the narrator is born in Mexico
because she does not have an English nickname like her sisters and brothers because she does not need

2. an English nickname in Mexico. Both the narrators in the poem and the vignette are bicultural, however
Esperanza seems to be more mature because she understands about what is the problem of her name,
Nellie doesn’t understand the problem of having 2 names which show two culture identity. The narrator
gives the meaning of her names both in English and in Spanish. Her name in English means “hope” which
has a positive connotation. On the other hand, in Spanish, her name means “too many letters”,
“sadness”, “waiting”, “muddy color” which have negative connotations to show how much the narrator
dislike her name. The author also uses synethesia, to show how people in her school, her classmate
can’t pronounce her name properly as if her name “were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your [her
classmate’s] mouth” which is similar to how the teacher can’t pronounce Nellie’s name in the poem.
The narrator uses comparison to compare her grandmother and herself to show the similarities
between them having the same name; both of them are born in the year of the horse. Furthermore, the
narrator uses flashback explaining what happened to her grandmother who has the same name to show
that the narrator doesn’t like her name because the narrator doesn’t want to end up like her
grandmother who “looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on
an elbow”. There is also a tone of dissatisfaction with the name narrator is given (Esperanza) because
the narrator wants to “baptize herself under a new name, a name more like the real her, the one
nobody sees”. This contrasts with the poem because in the poem, Nellie likes her Chinese name because
after she got her Chinese name, she “ran” to tell her parents her new name which shows the tone of
excitement of the narrator having a new name.
Both the poem and the vignette are similar. They also share a similar theme of the importance
of the name in society. Name can show the identity of a person, just like the name Esperanza which
shows a Mexican culture and Lai Oy which shows a Chinese culture. The name is very important in the
society because Esperanza wants to change her name to a name that is more like the real her and
Nellie’s Chinese teacher gave her a Chinese name so Nellie can become part of the Chinese culture.