In the book The House of Mango has many symbolism in the book. Like last week on our blogs we discussed about windows symbolism and what it represents as in the book. This week we got to choose many different types of symbolism in the book but today I will be talking about what red symbolizes in the book. The main character Esperanza, uses red to symbolize what she is forced to do and because of this she is not able to make her own decisions. 

“Until then I am a red ballon, a ballon tied to an anchor,”(9) 

This quote symbolizes how she is brought down and she isn’t able to express herself freely. I believe that in the beginning Esperanza doesn’t know who she is as a person and struggles to find it. Meanwhile with her stuggles to find her identity she lets herself bring her down and instead of “being untied to an anchor” she stays tied to it. The quote also connects to one of the vignettes that symbolizes windows and windows represents being trapped in a house like what I wrote about last week. Another symbolization that connect with red and the meaning of red like being forced to do something, not letting go yourself, and being stuck is something that connects to Pink.
At first in the book she talks about pink shoes and shoes alone and it represents past childhood and when she incorporated red in the vignettes shows the opposite of that.

“He said I love you, Spanish girl, I love you, and pressed his sour mouth to mine. Sally, make him stop..”(100) 

This quote is from the vignette “Red Clowns” shows that she was forced to kiss someone and she did not want to be kissed and red symbolizes scariness and being forced. hence the title “Red Clown”. So far in this book there are many more things to symbolize like more red connection and or pink connections that shows how her life was bringing down and how she has to be forced to do something or someone telling her what to do and much more.