The way up to heaven
Titling the story "The Way Up to Heaven" as a description of the husband's unfortunate death in an elevator shows the author's use of dark humor and cynicism. The story is about an old couple, where the husband enjoys provoking the wife by making her late for every trip, enjoying seeing her having a mental breakdown and her inability to complain because of the exhorting of his power over her. The way up to heaven is not only symbolic for the elevator being stuck, but the horrible treatment that made the wife ignore his calls for help and left him there to die.
The Colonel's coat
The Colonel's coat in the story "Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" becomes a symbol of hypocrisy that a husband and a wife live in. The wife tries to hide her love affair by hiding the coat, and her husband's love affair is revealed through the coat.
The Genesis and Catastrophe
The story "The Genesis and Catastrophe" tells about the origins of Hitler, hence the use of Genesis. Catastrophe is self-explanatory, and symbolizes what happened after. He is born after his older siblings all mysteriously die soon after being born. It is left unsaid, but implied that the father kills them because they are weak, not perfect specimen of humans. His mother urges her husband that this new, weak baby must live.
Pig
Probably the most gruesome story of them all, "Pig" can be symbolically seen as representing the anti-animal cruelty thought, but also as a representation of innocence and naivety. His aunt refuses to let Lexington partake in the world making him not prepared for its cruelties. In a way, the story can be seen as a warning against trying to preserve innocence with the result of ignorance which can be devastating, fatal to the individual.
