Air

Air symbolizes escape. Juliet has asthma so often strains to breathe properly. She feels like the Bronx exacerbates this, and that there is not enough air to breathe in her neighborhood. She looks to her time in Portland as a means to escape to breathe. Juliet's asthma is often triggered by her anxiety, which is often due to social situations and interactions that make her feel uncomfortable or trapped. At the end of the novel after Juliet rides the river during the cleansing, she lands on the shore, and, "In that moment, I finally knew what it was to just breathe" (300).

River

The river at the end of the novel represents a force greater than Juliet that forces her to examine how she is living her life. It forces her to face her fear and to let go both physically in the moment as well as...