Perhaps the most poignant example of symbolism in this
story that concerns the attempts of a widow to come to terms with the tragic death of
her husband and children comes when the widow, the narrator of the tale, visits the sea
off the shore of Ireland where the plane came down after the bomb exploded it. As Dr.
Ranganathan throws some pink roses into the water to remember his wife and commemorate
her life, the narrator reflects what she has to float on the sea to remember the lives
of her family:
But I have other things to float: Vinod's pocket
calculator; a half-painted model B-52 for my Mithus. They'd want them on their island.
And for my husband? For him I let fall into the calm, glassy waters a poem I wrote in
the hospital yesterday. Finally he'll know my feelings for
him.
These objects, and
especially the poem, symbolise the love that the narrator has for her family. Note the
way at the beginning of the story in which she laments the fact that she never told her
husband that she loved him:
"I never told him that I loved him," I say. I was
too much the well brought up woman. I was so well brought up I never felt comfortable
calling my husband by his first
name.
Ironically it is only
now, after his death, that she is able to voice what had been silent for so long, so
that "finally" her husband will know what she feels for him. The poem that confesses her
love for her husband is thus floated on the sea near the site of his death along with
other objects and pink roses: all symbols of love and
remembrance.
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