How do the changes to Micah and Ephraim’s home operate symbolically to illustrate Ephraim’s advancing illness and Gertrudis’s strict rule?

Analyze the different tickets children use to enter Circus Mirandus. How do these tickets function as symbols of hope and possibility? What do they reveal about the circus’s philosophy?

Explore the symbol of Ephraim’s bootlace. What does the bootlace mean to Gertrudis? Why does she react so negatively to it?