Significance of Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus symbolizes so many things to people, but in the novel, the Christian icon is used to symbolize the power of language to elicit subjective feelings and thoughts. For Max, Jesus is a curse to mutter when the Super Bowl broadcast cuts out, but for Diane it evokes emotional memories of a palazzo in Rome. In this way, Jesus is a perfect representation of how symbols are constructed around shared understandings and experiences.