The Mao Suit
This is a story of cultural assimilation. A padded and patterned Mao suit the narrator hates but is often forced to wear to school where she is guaranteed hateful teasing by other kids and unfair treatment by the faculty, is very much a symbol of cultural differentiation that obstructs facilitation of assimilation. The Mao suit is the symbolic incarnation of the factionalism which impedes cultural assimilation.
The Little Green Man
The Little Green Man refers to the image familiar around, but especially among those living in crowded urban centers where cars and people are in eternal battle for the rights to the streets. The little green man means it is safe to cross the street because the cars are halted by the red stoplight. In Cambodia, this signal of safe passage has developed into a symbol of governmental benevolence to the poor because only the wealthy could ever afford cars and until the little green and red men were installed, the rich felt no compunction to stop for the privilege of handing over rights to the street to a poor pedestrian.
Plain White Paper
Plain white paper is a symbol of the sterility of white Australian society in particular, but can be easily broadened to the point of metaphor to encompass how all of white society appears to Eastern cultures. The book overflows with references to color (see above) and the sheer volume of these references coalesce into imagery which situates Asian society as one dominated by vivid color even in the most mundane of objects in comparison to white society. The implicit suggestion, of course, being that whiteness of all that omnipresent paperwork in modern society is a reflection of the collective identity of the white majority of western culture.
White Dress/Black Dress
On the other hand, white is not inherently bad or even endowed with questionable white western symbolism. When it comes to innocence—particularly virginal female innocence—white is about as close it comes to universal agreement on a subject. Thus, Alice is given a white dress in which to attend her graduation and, also thusly, tries to pull a fast one on her overprotective family by sneaking out of the house in a black dress. Because, of course, it is never the virgin who shows up in a movie swearing a slinky black dress. Even though the particular black dress she is wearing is not described in a way that brings to mind the word slinky, it is the opposite of the white dress to which Alice refers as being emblematic of the “cold sterility of a forced innocence.”
Condoms in a Book
When Alice furtively slips the three-pack of unopened condoms between the pages of Michael’s copy of the book version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is a symbolic act. She knows that he will eventually discover the condoms there and she knows he will realize who put them there. She even imagines he may smile at the discovery in recognition of its symbolic meaning as a message underlining the chasm existing between them on the subject of engaging in sexual intercourse.
