Joy’s Hair

Joy's hair represents her sense of self. Early in the narrative, after she has been in the Hospital for a few months, she gets a haircut that leaves her hair styled in a way that she says is not her. At the narrative's conclusion, Joy comments in narration that her hair has grown back, and is similar to what it was, in terms of length and style, before she went to the Hospital. In short, her hair at the end represents how she has reclaimed herself. The fact that Joy's original hair style resembles the hair style of the woman she believes to be her mother represents is another way her sense of self - specifically, her relationship with the woman she desperately, perhaps in a delusional way, believes to be the woman who abandoned her as a baby.

Birds

Birds represent happiness, freedom...