What does South America represenr?

South America symbolizes for Theo basically what Los Angeles symbolizes for Sarah, but perhaps to a more extreme degree -- an escape and clean break from life with his family, ruled as it is by guilt. Before Theo is able to confront his guilt about the car crash, being with his parents and sister serves only to give him constant reminders of what happened when he was a teenager. Escaping to South America, a place where he has to speak an entirely different language, on an entirely different continent in an entirely different hemisphere, may provide him with temporary relief, but he is eventually pulled back to his family, forced to confront his guilt in a different way.