The Road Home-Symbolism

The symbolism in this film was phenomenal. I focused on the symbolism of repair. When the new teacher came into the village Di was instantly drawn to him. As all the men worked on building the new school Di prepared her best meals in a blue and white pottery dish that she would bring down to all the workers to eat. When it was her families turn to finally host and feed the teacher she prepared her best meal and made sure to put it in that bowl hoping he would recognize it. Di's mother could sense the way she felt about him and told her not to try--he was out of her class. That night when Di found out the teacher was leaving and not coming back over for mushroom dumplings she packed up that bowl to chase him down to make sure he ate it. While she was running she fell and the bowl broke. It was symbolic to her heart breaking and he was really gone. Despite Di's mothers opinions she paid a lot of money to have the bowl fixed and put back together. The teacher also came back into Di's life making it whole again.