Rev Road - Symbols

• The Syringe is a symbol of April's struggle as a woman in a society with little reproductive rights.
• "She had done all of this on her own, bought the syringe and rehearsed the speech"


  Haunts the Wheeler's marriage - represents the divide in their marriage
• "Having another to prove the first one hadn't been a mistake"


  Denial over April's first attempt to abort their first child. Forcing themselves into conformity is ultimately what kills April, symbolic of societal pressures and expectations.
• Howard Givings' hearing aid is his refuge, how he copes in an unhappy marriage is by turning the hearing aid off.
• The hearing aid represents miscommunication in their marriage, self protection is needed in a marriage which shows perhaps the failure of the institution.
• "He had turned off his hearing aid"


  Last line of the novel, no longer involved in the drama of suburban life.
• "At least it was a man's work"


  The stone path represents Frank's masculinity, feels like he is fulfilling his role.
• Frank never fully forms the stone path - symbolic of his identity never fully formed.
• "Awful stone path" 


  Left unfinished which represents their marriage.
• The stone path acts as a bridge between the Wheelers and America suburbia, just as Frank fails to finish the path, the Wheelers fail to conform to suburban society.
• "I just wanted to bring over this sedum plant for the rocky place at the foot of your drive" 


  Mrs Givings gives Frank the sedum plant (gender reversal) in the aftermath of their first argument in the book - trying to help them fix their house symbolic of fixing their marriage.
• "rocky place" symbolic of conflict in their marriage
• "marvellous ground cover" 


  Links to Helen's obsession with appearance and image, plant is left unplanted and withered - Frank and April deviant as didn't conform to standards
• "Bloated and pale they felt as if all their bones had been painlessly removed"


  Deep rooted insecurity of his male inadequacy - sees his hands as inadequate.
• "It was their sureness and sensitivity"

  Idealises his father's hands - strong and skilled at stereotypically male skills.
• "It had been easy to decide in favour of love"


  Apartment on Bethune Street represents what could have been.
• "An apartment where half the fun of being married was it was just like having an affair"


  Time they were happy in their life: living an unconventional life and had not yet succumb to conformity.