54 pages • 1 hour read
Mike LupicaHeat
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is the central feature of the Bronx skyline. From the first action of Heat, all places and sights in the story surround Yankee. For Michael, Yankee Stadium symbolizes his ultimate dream: to play baseball at the greatest stage. It is the place where he will, he hopes, play to qualify for the Little League World Series. The Stadium looms in the background of each scene—Ellie running away, Michael sitting on his doorstep, Macombs Dam Park. Each character is able to look to it for inspiration. The spirit of the Yankees animates and unites characters and actions throughout the story.
But it is always at a distance, until the last chapter of the story. El Grande, and the other Yankees who Michael admires, are visible only from the outside gates; Michael has no chance to step inside the park. Ironically, it is El Grande, who he confronts outside the park, who is able to get him inside of it. Entrance into the stadium illustrates the achievement of Michael’s dream: he is finally able to access the mythical symbol around which his life has revolved.
Cuban Sayings and Songs
Cuban sayings are part of the code with which Carlos and Michael speak to one another. They serve as a set of codes that help the boys connect and connect to their absent father. Carlos calls Michael a “rat,” an extension of the nickname that Papi used with him; when Uncle Timo takes on their father’s persona, he repeats this nickname.
These sayings also connect Michael to El Grande, who, he thinks he knows, does not speak any English. Their shared cultural heritage provides a new and rich link between the two families, collapsing the distance that fame places between Michael and El Grande, his idol, at the beginning of the story.
“El Gato Misifuz”
In Chapter 7, when Michael first speaks to Ellie, the two bond over the song that both of their fathers sang to them as children, “El Gato Misifuz.” For Michael, the song is the source of his family nickname. For Ellie, it is similarly comforting. The song joins the two children through their shared cultural heritage; it also gives them a kind of language with which to share about their fathers.
Later, and desperately, Michael uses the name of the song to gain El Grande’s attention. The man and the boy sing lines of the song back and forth to one another, and it is enough of a connection to bring them physically close so that Michael can hand El Grande his note for Ellie. In the end, the song that his father gives to him helps him to bridge a vast distance between him and his loved ones, and, in the process, it helps him regain the birth certificate that, otherwise, only his father might have found.
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By Mike Lupica
