Symbols In 'Mexican Whiteboy' By Matt De La Peña

In the book “Mexican Whiteboy¨- by Matt de la Peña some of the biggest symbols that stood out to me were stickball, mental health and a hawk because there was a common occurring symbol that continuously popped up in the book. I chose these symbols because they are all connected with Danny and effect him a different way
The first symbol that I would be explaining is stickball because In the book the main character Danny plays and talks about stickball a lot. Danny enjoys playing stickball so much that he hopes to be in a team but to him stickball is not only a sport it's his passion even when danny went to a new place the only way he felt like he was fitting in was when he was playing stickball and that's the reason why I chose stickball as a symbol is because even when he was sad and depressed he was still thinking about stickball and how he didn’t enter the team he wanted to, on page 41 and 42 it says “This had been Danny’s spot since Coach Sullivan pulled him aside after the last day of tryouts-in front of everybody-patted him on the back and tried to let him down easy. Listin, son, he’d said, walking Danny off the school’s manicured infield” in that sentence it tells you

Danny also despite getting told a lot of times to stop digging his nails in his wrist on page 4 it says “he digs into his wrist some more with his nails. Breaks previously broken skin and pulls away. A smear of blood he wipes away with his other hand, rubs off across his dark jeans. Back at home his mom is alway on him to stop digging, but that only wants him to dig more” the reason he does that is to use physical pain to get rid of his emotional pain caused by his dad leaving him and his family and that is the reason why I chose mental health as a