Oreo cookies

On the phone with her son, Lillian inadvertently eats too many Oreos, and they ruin her appetite. She sees Oreo cookies many times throughout the novel, including in a television commercial and on the walls of Wendy's apartment complex. Oreos represent the idea that even though Lillian knows the mechanism behind advertising -- that it is designed to make consumers buy things they do not need or want -- she still falls prey to it anyway.

New York City

New York City represents energy, new adventure, and life itself to Lillian. She refuses to leave the city for a slower-paced life in Maine because she knows that New York is where things will keep happening to her. New York has always offered Lillian stimulation and unexpected surprise, and she knows that anywhere else will make her less enthusiastic about continuing to live. New York gives...