Claire's oxycontin

Claire’s oxycontin symbolizes the ways in which the legacies of previous generations lead to the doom of the ensuing ones. Claire orchestrates her suicide in such a way that she overdoses on the very drug that her father made his millions on in spite of the negative impact it had on people’s health. Her use of the oxycontin is meant to suggest to Ty that there is a price to pay for reckless, irresponsible, or cavalier behavior, but that it will be paid by its inheritors, not its perpetrators.

Story's ghost

The ghostly presence that much of America takes to be Story Nadir is symbolic of the collective impulse toward superstition. The specter of superstition and its hold on the human mind even in the face of fact is a running theme in the novel; indeed, it is an integral part of the...