War
War itself is a symbol in the novel. War is symbolic of the death of one’s humanity and failure of humanity as a whole to uphold the sanctity and dignity of human life. The novel is one large anti-war sentiment and the message it wants to send is loud and clear: war is futile and war is nothing but the failure of people to act like people and to treat people like people ought to treat people.
Japanese flag
One of the most poignant symbols in the novel is the Japanese flag. For the Japanese soldiers it was a symbol of solidarity that emboldened them when they would see it being waved during combat, but for everyone else to see the Japanese flag fluttering in the wind it was a symbol of death and defeat.
Packard Car
Jim’s family was one of the few that were wealthy enough to own a Packard car. In a very shallow sense the car becomes symbolic of their family’s great wealth but more than that it is also symbolic of how badly disconnected and aloof Jim’s family was from the concerns of others around them.
Airplanes
Airplanes have come to symbolize two things in the novel; for Jim and the other POW’s in the camp airplanes represented freedom--freedom from the constraints of gravity, loneliness, and boredom as in Jim’s case and freedom from their tormentors for the POW’s. Conversely airplanes can also be symbolic of death and destruction, especially for many civilians and soldiers as airplanes were usually the vanguard of a round of heavy bombing.
Lunghua Camp
When the war took everything from Jim Lunghua Camp become more than just a POW camp, it became Jim’s home. Ironically, it was in many ways more home to Jim than his own parent’s home in Shanghai. More that home Lunghua Camp is also symbolic of normalcy after the chaos and confusion that the war had brought to Jim’s life.
