The River

Throughout the narrative, the river is a metaphoric embodiment of the book's overall thematic exploration in journeys and journeying. As the characters take their physical journey down the river, the hazards and successes they encounter symbolically represents the movement of life, also through hazards and successes, to the inevitable destination of death. Wynn's death at the book's climax, as the characters are reaching the end of their physical journey down the river, is itself a metaphoric representation of the death at the end of every human journey.

The Fire

The fire that follows, threatens, and eventually overtakes the characters represents two sorts of danger. First, there is the physical danger associated with fire's destructive power. Second, there is the more metaphorical, psycho-emotional danger of the sense of guilt and remorse that has followed Jack throughout his life and flames into deadly destruction in the aftermath...