Symbols+and+Themes

1. A key


In the book Ruby always wears a chain with a key. This is the key to the Yellow House, her old house, where she had to leave all her belongings and her past life when the social workers forced her to move out. Ruby knows this key like the palm of her hand. At some point, Ruby thinks about throwing her key away, since it can't open anything else but some bad memories. When Ruby started working at the store with Harriet, a little girl liked her key and asked if they had any more. Harriet spent the whole night making them, and the next day, they successfully sold over 20.

2. The Yellow house



This is were Ruby used to live with her mom and her sister. Her dad had abandoned them and her mom was not a very good example. She would drink, smoke, yell and even sometimes hit Ruby and Cora. When Cora turned 18, she left the house, leaving Ruby and her mom by themselves. Ruby would be the one in charge of the house; she would keep up with the bills, talk to the neighbors when they came over to see how everything was doing, clean, cook... While Ruby did all of this, her mom would just sit around, drinking and smoking in the dirty sofa. The power was often cut off from their house, and her mom didn't do a very good job keeping up with her work to pay the bills. Ruby's mom would also leave for days without saying anything, while Ruby would stay in the house all by herself. The key that Ruby has opens the door to this house, where she has a lot of memories and where she had to look after herself and her mom while keeping up with her school and helping her mom with her job at the same time.

3. A closet

Or to be more specific, Ruby's closet. In here, the dog Roscoe hides if the fire detector goes off. Also, Cora sat there a couple times calm, because she said it was quite peaceful. This closet is full of clothes that Cora made Ruby buy; expensive, preppy clothes that Ruby would never had imagined of wearing in her whole life.