Kewpie Dolls
The Kewpie doll that Roo has made a tradition of bringing to Olive each year they spend together during the layoff season becomes the central symbol of her immaturity and lack of desire to fully embrace the trappings of adulthood. Trappings is the key word here because marriage seems like being trapped to Olive.
Pearl’s “Good Black” Dress
At the other extreme is the symbolism of Pearl’s dress; what she terms her “good black.” This dress becomes Pearl’s almost defiant symbol of maturity. Wearing it is her way of essentially saying to everybody that she is the only adult in the room around all this mad “offseason” craziness.
"Kathie"
Kathie is Bubba’s real name and Johnnie Dowd’s asking what it is and instantly deciding that he is going to address that way from then on transforms it into almost a talisman. Johnnie’s suggestion that everyone still calls her Bubba because they want to keep her a kid and not allow her to mature resonates and his calling her Kathie makes her real name more than just a symbol of her maturity, but an active agent in the maturation process.
The Knitted Sweater
The sweater that Pearl is knitting for Barney’s son is a powerful symbol of her longing for a normal, traditional, “proper” domesticated life. With Barney’s acknowledgement that none of the long string of female conquests that have made up his life to now ever having knitted anything for him, the symbolic meaning is intensified. The very length of time consumed by knitting a sweater is symbolically indicative of both Pearl’s commitment to getting what she wants and a foreshadowing that Barney, no longer the ladies’ man he once was, is finally ready to commit.
The Paint Company Job
The job that Roo gets in the city with the paint company is actually a rather complex symbol. On one hand, it is symbolizes the emasculation of Roo’s masculinity which is already threatened by aging and the superior cane cutting of Johnnie Dowd. The job’s location in the city infuses it with symbolism associated with settling down into a more mundane and predictable existence. Olive’s explicit belittling of settling for marriage with someone working there makes that predictable component another part of her symbolic rejection of fully growing up. And the general view of everybody that it is beneath the dignity of a cane cutter also makes the paint job weirdly gender-specific, deepening the symbolism of lack of masculinity into something veering close to outright emasculation.
