Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
When Mami tells her favorite story about Carla, "The Red Sneakers," Carla (who's a psychologist) likes to analyze it for hidden meaning with her analyst husband.Thing is, they never really let anyone else in on the joke. It goes something like this:
"That's classic," the analyst said, winking at his wife.
"Red sneakers at that." Carla shook her head, stressing the word red.
"Jesus!" the second oldest groaned. (1.3.31-33)
Like Sandi, we're feeling pretty exasperated with Carla and her husband. What's so significant about the sneakers being red? Will someone please tell us how to decode this story?
Guess what? They never do. We're left wondering about the significance of the red shoes, and feeling vaguely annoyed. But let us let you in on a little secret:
The red sneakers can be a symbol for anything.
This novel has a pretty fraught relationship to symbols. They're totally present in the novel—mama cat, anyone?—but the novel is also aware of how symbolism, like cultural nuances and personal identity, is fluid.
Yoyo's dirtbag college boyfriend Rudy is all about peppering his college poetry with dirty double entendres. And Yoyo doesn't understand the inside joke in his poetry, because her English doesn't yet contain the understanding that certain words like, uh, "pussy-cat," can get pretty XXX-rated when used in the right context.
But once Yo is in on the joke, she's totally there with the symbolism. She's adopted a new vocabulary. So when Carla gets introduced to the oh-so-symbolic vocabulary of psychoanalysis (you know, the field of study that launched a thousand cigar jokes and Freudian slips) she starts looking at things like "red sneakers" in a whole new light.