The coffin
The narrator describes in the book Beauty's funeral and also the coffin in which her body was put. The four women, her friends, stay silent by the coffin and think about their friend and what she had gone through. The coffin becomes an important element here and it is used as a metaphor to represent the danger represented by the possibility of getting infected with HIV.
Hope
After the four women decide to go and confront their husbands and partners about the possibility of being infected with HIV, they go their separate ways. Each woman is then described as looking towards the clear blue sky above them and having a smile on their face. The sky becomes important here and is used as a metaphor to represent the faith in a better future each woman had.
The crack in the door
After Vuyo beats Cordelia for daring to ask him about the possibility of being infected with HIV, he storms out of the house, slamming the door behind him and causing a crack in the wood. Cordelia looks at the crack for a long time before picking herself off the floor and running out of the house. The crack, in this context, is used as a metaphor to represent the irreparable damage done to the marriage by Vuyo's unfaithfulness.
The packed bags
When Amanda realized she cannot convince her husband to change his ways, she took the decision to leave him. As such, Amanda packed in haste her belongings and left the house she shared with her husband. The bags Amanda took with her are extremely important here because they are used as a metaphor to represent the woman's decision to no longer be controlled by her husband.
The children
The book ends with the four women sitting together and realizing that the end they got wasn't the one they hoped for. However, they refused to give up and decided to think instead of their children. As such, the children become used here as a metaphor for hope.
