Ram's coin
Ram’s coin is a symbol of his good luck. Whenever he is in a tricky situation where he does not trust his own reasoning, he relies on his lucky coin.
Serpents on Father John's arm
Father John’s arm is tattooed with serpents, which symbolize his ability to deceive boys and abuse them very much like the serpent which tricked Eve to eat from the forbidden tree.
The game show
The game show “Who Wants to Be a Billionaire” is rigged from the start. After Ram answers the first question correctly, the host actually tells him the next question during a commercial break to ensure that the show continues according to the script. Therefore, it symbolizes the illusion of everyone having a chance of winning. However, winning is predetermined by a higher power (in this case, the game show producers and their script).
The bear
When Ram and his friend see a new boy with a weird head shape being brought into their “school,” he is reminded of a bear that he once saw with Father Timothy. “He had a tight collar round his neck and a black mask covering his mouth. His owner would poke him hard with a pointed stick and he would stand on both his hind legs, saluting the people gathered round him. They would throw coins at him. The owner would pick up the money and pull him away for another performance.” The bear, therefore, symbolizes the new boy’s fate, which means he is going to be enslaved by Maman.
The woman in the white sari
Ram has frequent visions and dreams of a woman in a white sari, whose face is obscured by her hair. The vision changes minimally depending on the events that Ram is going through at the moment. She may represent his desire of being loved like a mother loves her child; after all, she may be faceless because Ram’s mother abandoned him when he was a newborn, and he never got to see her.
