Red Symbolism In The House On Mango Street

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or abstract thoughts. There are so many amazing symbols in The House on Mango Street. For example, Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold represents poverty. There are lot of old rusty things in that store (Cisneros19). Furthermore, Commandment 1 which states that everything is a symbol unless proven otherwise can be proved in THOMS by several symbols such as the color red, trees, the sky, shoes, and the monkey garden. The color red is a very big symbol in The House on Mango Street. Red symbolizes madness. For example, the whole chapter of "Red Clowns" is filled with madness. "Sally, make him stop. I couldn't make them go away. I couldn't do anything but cry"(Cisneros100). Throughout this chapter,

The trees in "Four Skinny Trees" symbolize Esperanza. "Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine"(Cisneros74). In this quotation she is describing her physical attributes and is using the trees as an example. Cisneros also writes on page 74,"Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city." Esperanza is stuck on Mango Street just like the trees are stuck on the concrete. The trees and Esperanza both have a lot of strength. Esperanza never gives up trying to leave Mango Street just like the trees keep reaching (75). Furthermore, this exemplifies another symbol in

"You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad"(Cisneros33). Sky is the only freedom some of the people on Mango Street have, especially the women. Most of the women look out their windows because the men in their life do not let them have any freedom. The only freedom they have is the sky. The only way they can get it is by looking outside from their window"(Cisneros). Esperanza even says she wants a house on a hill because she wants to be as close as possible to the sky (86). Shoes are another huge symbol in THOMS. Shoes symbolize the bad side of society and womanhood. In the chapter "The Family of Little Feet" Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy grow into womanhood. Once they walk outside, men are looking at them and are making comments. "If I give you a dollar will you kiss me"(Cisneros41)? This scares them off because it makes the girls feel like an object. Even when Lucy's mom throws out the heels, no one complains (42). This is the chapter where Esperanza faces the bad side of