Significance of flag

Several times throughout the novel, flagpoles symbolize the various characteristics of the countries or ideologies which they represent, especially as they change due to the effects of World War II. For example, Eleanor sees a flagpole in France that “had undoubtedly flown a swastika a year earlier” (292) but which was now bare. The bare flagpole suggests that although the Nazi occupation of France is over, the country has yet to regain its sense of national identity and independence separate from an occupying force.