Snake Symbol
Throughout the collection of stories the symbol of a snake is used to show the duplicity and lake of trustworthiness of people. The snake is also a symbol of a dangerous decline in morality and the way in which this does not announce itself with a bang but instead slithers insidiously into the world barely noticed.
Dangers Men Pose to Women Motif
Even if they do not seem to at the beginning, the stories all seem to be tied together by the fact that the greatest danger posed to women is men. The characters have all been either physically or emotionally abused by men, yet they do not realize the extent of this abuse until they are contemplating the dangers posed to them by something else. The stories begin to take on a women versus men identity as they develop primarily because of the danger the characters have been put in by men in their lives.
Contemplation Motif
The dangers in their lives and the lack of morality in the world are not things that the characters present immediately. Each finds himself or herself prompted to contemplate the world by something external, be it the natural environment seen on a walk, or the decline in humanity realized after a bad experience with someone else. The author uses the characters and their thoughts to present the themes of the book, rather than presenting them in an third person or narrative sense, which is why it is necessary for each of the characters to go through a period of introspective contemplation.
Remote Island Symbol
Dogs Go Wild is set on a remote island, but as the story develops it becomes clear that this island is a symbol of the remote island that women can find themselves on in their lives. They have no immediate means of escape, nobody knows that they are there and so rescue seems unlikely. There is danger, but none that can be specifically identified and dealt with. This is symbolic of the way in which they have lived their lives, isolated and not really rescuable by others.
Ungrateful Girl Symbol
The ungrateful girl who does not thank her for her kind deeds or for putting herself in harm's way is a symbol of the general decline in morality that the female protagonist of the story sees around her. She has a very negative experience with the girl, and we assume many other negative experiences similar to this have gone before; this one, probably, the icing on the cake, so to speak. By taking the woman for granted, the girl has symbolized the decline in humanity that the woman believes she is seeing all around her.
