The Kewpie Dolls
The Kewpie dolls that Roo gives to Olive are a symbol in themselves, packed with meaning. In a conversation with Johnnie Dowd, however, Bubba uses a simile to metaphorically describe their meaning.
“Roo gives one to Olive every year, when he arrives. Like a mascot.”
What is the Layoff?
Pearl and Olive are at loggerheads over the meaning of the layoff season. An offhand remark by Bubba has led Pearl to completely misinterpret as nasty the very same elements in which Olive finds magic. Olive put is plainly during another argument about, telling her flatly that layoff season is nothing more nor less than:
“five months of heaven every year.”
The Ladies' Man
“Ever since I was a kid, whenever I see a good looking woman. I’ve felt as if someone had just given me a birthday present.”
Barney is not the man he used to be; at least, not on the outside. Where past layoff seasons have resulted in the siring of a family’s worth of kids with different mothers, things are changing. Barney is a man who has collected a lot of birthday presents and that’s not a reference to women.
Roo and Barney Take Flight
Pearl recounts a time when Olive was getting very metaphorical in discussing the layoff season. Pearl’s intention is to belittle the fanciful imagery, however, which stands in contrast to the original intent of Olive. That five months of heaven every year made Roo and Barney seem like:
“two eagles flyin’ down out of the sun and coming south every year for the mating season”
The Eagle has Landed
The heavenly sort of magic that Olive sees in layoff season turns out to be just a desperate attempt to cling to her immaturity and stave off growing up. Roo doesn’t have that problem, however, and by the end he is proposing and insisting that the days of flying from the sun are over. Olive does not take the idea of having to grow up well, even when laced with metaphor:
“This is the dust we’re in and we’re gunna walk through it like everyone else for the rest of our lives.”
