The didjeridu

The didjeridu symbolizes the past; specifically the romantic past, and the wonder and novelty of Sando’s teachings. As an Aboriginal instrument, it (implicitly) symbolizes pre-colonial history, but it is also a personal link to the past for Pikelet, who plays it as a precursor to narrating his memories. And this is a “defiant” activity, by which he releases his frustration with the modern world (8). “I blow at the brutalist condos that stand between me and the beach,” he says, as though the exercise can bring him closer to the vanished joys of youth (symbolized by the beach), blowing down the mundane, ugly obstructions (8). As a teenager, he finds comfort in Sando’s didjeridu because it “sucked energy from me and drew hard feelings up the way only a good tantrum could when I was little” (142).

The river

The river symbolizes transition; from land to...