The missing father
The novel takes place during a season that is defined by the symbolic removal of the father. The boys respect their mother, but they don't let her tell them what to do. They decide to go fishing whenever they want, and this development raises a potential interpretation of the symbol. The father's disappearance represents the free will of the sons, because they become their own authority in his absence.
The insane man
This crazy prophet gives the boys some unwelcome news. He plants the seeds of destruction in the lives of the boys by prophesying against the brother Ikenna. Ikenna, he says, will become mute, blind, crippled, and eventually killed. The prophet says this will happen by the hands of fishermen. The man is an unwelcomed addition to their blissful day, and he belongs to an archetypal class of symbol, the seer or the sage. He represents the abstract order of nature that is not removed just because the patriarchy is removed from their home.
The paranoia of Ikenna
Ikenna tries to forget the prophecy, but instead, he precipitates it by becoming increasingly hostile and defensive. He becomes a full-blown paranoiac. The paranoia symbolizes the state of experience, because the prophet showed him the absolute truth of death. Although he wants to forget that his death has been prophesied, he cannot. The death-awareness leaves him riddled by absolute paranoia. He starts to suspect that the brothers will conspire to kill him.
The threat of fratricide
The fractricidal fear of Ikenna points to the various fratricides of legends. For instance, Cain and Abel. Although the brothers share a deep communion and companionship, he can't shake the suspicion that they have it in them to conspire against him and to kill him. The threat makes him perfectly paranoid. This is his experience of their dark sides, because although they don't seem aggressive, he sees how they could become aggressive. He is mad at who they might become; he sees the depth of their potential for evil.
Benjamin the young brother
The young brother is named Benjamin, a reminder of his namesake who was also the youngest brother. In the Bible story, Benjamin is the youngest son of Israel whose older brother, Joseph, was sold into slavery. That means that the allusion is fairly thorough, because Ikenna believes his brothers might conspire against him because of a prophecy he received; in Joseph's story, that is precisely what happens. He sees a dream and becomes convinced that they will conspire against him, and he is correct. In both cases, a younger brother named Benjamin is implicated.
