The Beautiful Forever Wall
The wall is the book’s central symbol; so infused with a variety of meanings that it becomes a metaphor. The wall—like all walls—is really a symbol of fear: the government fears the truth getting about their lies of “progress” and the business world fears that if rich passengers see the reality of city being hid from them, revenue will being slowing down and income drying up.
The Airport
While the wall is the central symbol, the airport is its most pervasive. Unlike the wall, the airport is at all times a presence; sometimes it comes to the fore and at the very least it is a linger presence in the background. This allows the airport to be a symbol representing the bifurcation of the city. For the wealthier residents and the travelers, the airport is essential to daily life. For those in the slums, it is economically tangential, but always a thematic reminder of inequality.
The Houses of Annawadi
The homes in this Mumbai slum are described as all being constructed off-kilter and when that is the case, “less off-kilter looked like straight.” The homes represent a skewed perspective and the skewed perspective comes to symbolize just about every aspect of life in Mumbai where corruption is widespread that when something is less corrupt than another, it can lose its “crooked” characterization altogether.
Garbage Economics
As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and that is literally so in the story. The rubbish that is disposed of by wealthy visitors staying in the city’s expensive hotels come to symbolize the essence of capitalist economics in which value is (in theory, at least) determined on a mostly predictable calculus (in theory, at least) of supply and demand. For those of relative wealth, the supply of what they throw away is so great that it literally has no value whatever while those very same items exponentially increase in value once they become trash.
Sunil's Obsession
The first information the reader is presented about Sunil is that he is a scrawny pre-teen who scavenges for food for specific purpose of wanting to grow taller. As the narrative progressive, it becomes clear that “growing” is an obsession for the child who compulsively pursues this goal. While most young boys sharing his physique also share this desire, the level at which it is addressed in the book raises this desire to “grow” to a symbolic level in which the compulsion must be seen as a metaphorical urgency to move beyond the constrictions and restrictions of slum life in order to live a bigger life.
