In the vignette, “The Monkey Garden,” Cisneros uses similes, personification, and juxtaposition to show how the garden quickly changes from a child’s playground to a place of haunting grownup memories. In the beginning, Cisneros uses similes to describe the carefree nature of the garden: “There were big green apples hard as knees. And everywhere the sleepy smell of rotting wood, damp earth, and dusty hollyhocks thick and perfumey like the blue-blonde hair of the dead" (Cisneros 95). Initially, Esperanza and the other children are young and naive and play in the garden without any worries. The garden is a place of childhood innocence and shows that although Esperanza wants desperately to grow up, she is still a child. Along with similes to describe