Urban industrialization
The family lives on the wrong side of Montreal, near urban industrial centers, like factories and mills, where the working class supports the war efforts abroad. This means that the novel has imagery from that period of history, and some of the characters are machinists and engineers and such. The city is smoggy from pollution, and when the family takes a trip back to the country, they realize how dingy and restrictive the city can feel sometimes.
Depictions of resilience
Jean can't understand that people with less privilege often have less resources, and he assumes the worst about the Lacasse family. However, his point of view is flawed; in reality, the house is a picture of a family's joint struggle for survival. It's a symbol of resilience and power in the face of adversity. The novel is full of pictures of the lower class's disenfranchisement, like Florentine showing up for work, ready to support her family of nearly 14 people at a diner where no one knows how desperate she is. That is a picture of her resilience.
Hospital imagery
Typically, hospital imagery represents disease, death, or other health difficulties. But not in this novel, because Daniel loves the hospital. When he looks at the hospital imagery, he sees cleanliness, order, intelligence, community, and understanding.
Sexuality and courtship
The novel contains the courtship between Florentine and Jean, and also Florentine and Emmanuel. This love triangle ends up in a scene of sexual betrayal when Jean decides he won't stay with her, but he still has sex with her, leaving her pregnant. For Florentine, the scene is flirty and full of romance, but for Jean, the scene is full of disgust, because he can't help but look down on her family's low status. Florentine's sexual experience of life is part of the stage of life she's in, but it also represents her need to get out of her current situation.
