How does the author use symbolism in the book, Memorial Drive?

The most significant symbols in the memoir are the two that are repeated at the beginning and end of the narrative—Trethewey's recurring dream about her mother and her memory of nearly drowning in Mexico and seeing her mother's face above the water, haloed in light. When she recalls these symbols at the end of the memoir, it is to express how they have provided her with some semblance of meaning amid the tragedies and traumas she has endured. The near-drowning is especially important, as she declares it “akin to a baptism,” out of which she emerged “changed, reborn” (211). “Even my mother's death is redeemed in the story of my calling,” she explains, “made meaningful rather than merely senseless. It is the story I tell myself to survive” (211). She believes that her mother's death and all of the memories and symbols she associates with it have made her into the person she is, and into a writer capable of telling her mother's story.