Describe symbolism in That in Aleppo Once... by Vladimir Nabokov

While describing to V. the first time he kissed his wife, the narrator compares the moment to "that blinding blast" caused when a soldier picks up "a small doll from the floor of a carefully abandoned house." In the context of World War II, the doll is meant to be viewed as a booby-trap containing an explosive detonated by the unwitting soldier; in the context of their marriage, the soldier and the doll symbolize the narrator and his wife. Like a doll, the narrator's wife seems innocent and harmless, but, like this particular doll, she is capable of destruction. Like the soldier, the narrator is attracted to the doll but fails to realize that the house has been "carefully abandoned": the doll is part of a larger set-up meant to destroy such unsuspecting fools. Death lurks in unlikely places, such as the abandoned house or the "vacuum" of Central Park, where the narrator composes the letter intimating his suicidal thoughts.