Suicide as a symbol
Instead of saying suicide "represents" something else, it is a symbol in another way: The mother's suicide serves as an archetypal reminder about the true, tragic consequences of suicide. This mother is a good representation of these effects, because her role is clearly to nourish and support her children, but by allowing her private suffering to reach a head, alone without her community in the loop, she accidentally harms her children and sets them up for a life like Aunty's, or maybe even her own.
When it rains, it pours
When May becomes emotionally desperate, that has other, darker consequences. Because she is alone at night, and because she is black and her community includes racist white supremacists, she is raped while she is mourning her mother's suicide. Surely, this puts her in touch with the suicidal agony that plagued her mother. The rape signifies the way evil people take advantage of those who suffer.
The symbol of money
When Aunty gambles away her money, it is a sign that accruing wealth is a privilege in itself. Alcoholism and gambling are vicious addictions for Aunty, because gambling shows her the fake promise of quick wealth. Those who need money most are most likely to spend their money on bad investments, because those investments help them to distract themselves from their chronic money stress. Money represents scarcity in this book, especially the scarcity of hope in their family.
The machine on the beach
When May sees the effect of man against nature, she is perplexed and displeased. Why should man work against the beauty of nature? The answer is money, because they are building something on the beach, a business no doubt. She realizes that without being careful, it would be easy to behave in silly, unnatural ways. This crisis symbolizes her attachment to nature.
The dual allegory of depression
When May ends up as a rape victim whose mother committed suicide, that comes with a symbolic challenge. Can she discover a new way of dealing with intense feelings of hopelessness, hatred, regret, and shame? Those feelings caused her mother to do something tragic to herself and to her family, so can May figure out a new way of existing with depression that leads to a healthy, happy life? Together, May and her mother represent the dual nature of human life. May will be tempted to become addicted to victimhood, because of PTSD, but perhaps with honesty in her community and with therapy and medicine, she could give hope to her family instead of taking hope away.
