Fire

The illustration often includes fire eating up tall city buildings, especially in reference to the news. The boy sees fire as a destructive entity coinciding with the destruction of the idea of normalcy and security. Every time red appears in the illustration, even when it is not explicitly showing fire, it evokes the feeling of destruction and heat.

Water

Water symbolizes drowning and the feeling of being overwhelmed. In many novels, water can be utilized to symbolize tranquility and peace, and so the explicit images of drowning and fighting to the surface successfully invert this trope. The water is vast and consuming and the boy imagines his mother drowning in the news and the sea of stress and worry.

Air

A common theme throughout the novel is air and the lack of air and the inability to breathe. Air comes to symbolize freedom and the power...