Symbolization

What objects, images, words, music or sounds symbolize the main characters or reveal their state of mind? Do they show a change in the lead character as the story progresses? (Character change is an important aspect of storytelling. Truby, The Anatomy of Story, 79.) Are any of them food for theological or ethical reflection?

Paul Rivers

Portable oxygen tank; cigarette; bathroom (a small, confined space)
The small room where he contributes a sperm sample
Bellows (part of the hospital respirator machine); a machine showing his vital signs
Doctors
His heart, which he calls “the culprit,” after its removal from his body
His small blue car, contrasted with the larger, light-colored vehicles of Jack and Cristina
The music as he drives the sleeping Cristina home in her car and gazes at her
The bank of elevators where he tells his wife Mary, “We’re finished”
The two swimming pools he observes
Settings: at home with his wife; the hospital; Cristina’s home; the motel
Beds: bed shared with his wife; Cristina’s; hospital beds; motel bed, when he is dying
Alternating heavy rain and dry weather
The roar in the climactic scene as he watches Cristina beat Jack
The gun
His name: the Apostle Paul said, “Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Cor 15:55); Rivers suggests “life is a river,” resembles the movie’s tag line, “life goes on”

Jack Jordan

Pickup truck; emblazoned on the rear panel are the words “Faith” and “Jesus Saves”; after the accident his wife washes blood from the front grill
His name: in the beginning he wants metaphorically to cross into the Promised Land
Painting of a reclining tiger in his motel room
Drinking glasses
His knit cap as he comes home in his final scene

Cristina Peck

Swimming pool
Her home; the bed she first shared with her husband
Drug paraphernalia
Her naked body, especially her breasts, source of milk for the baby she conceives with Paul
Her blood (unseen), which reveals she is pregnant
.