Match of the Day

The British soccer highlights television show Match of the Day is symbolic of the absence of female camaraderie and support for the narrator at the start of the novel. An interest in sports is stereotypically used to denote the masculine in the novel and the author uses it to highlight the fact that the narrator is surrounded by men (who try to watch the show) while she is in labor, rather than being part of a supportive community of women, as she is later in the novel in the refugee camp.

Cabin in the Garden

The cabin that R begins to build in his parents garden as a new home for himself, the narrator, and their baby Z is symbolic of his desire to provide for his family in stereotypical patriarchal ways (such as providing food and building shelter) to the detriment of...