Importance of Tombstone

Following Junie’s funeral, Chauncy pushes Ephram over a tombstone at the cemetery. Ephram has long believed that the future is just as important as the past. Ephram’s being pushed over a tombstone is a symbolic act: he is tripping over the dead, tripping over the past, giving emphasis to the fact that the past holds sway on the present. The past –history –forms an important theme in the novel.