The symbolic frame
The novel is framed by death, because the premise of the novel is that Everyman is remembering his life from the "seeing one's life before their eyes" in life's last moments. In these death grips, the memories are understood as symbolic reflections of himself in an ultimate lens. This is not a therapy session of free association, this is the final appreciation of the artwork that is his life, and of course it is literally artwork because Roth himself has hand-crafted this man's fate.
Phoebe's story
Everyman remembers the love of his life, a woman named Phoebe whom he deeply admired and longed to marry. He reflects on the story that unfolded: He was able to win Phoebe over, finally securing the love he longed for, but then through time, as the magic fire of romance faded, as the difficulties of parenting set it, he longed for the original feelings of passion, victory, and newness. He left his wife for several mistresses, eventually divorcing her altogether. The narrative symbolizes the bitter irony of romance, because he had everything he wanted but it wasn't what he really wanted. Phoebe symbolizes the trickery of desire.
Painting as a symbol
The story explains that after Phoebe, this career ladies' man continued to climb the ladder of attractive mates, eventually ended up with a stunning Danish supermodel, but again, he isn't satisfied. He decides that he doesn't really want to chase women anymore, and he picks up painting, a symbolic endeavor. Instead of validating himself through the love of others, he seeks now to capture the beauty of his experience of life. This has the makings of a metanarrative symbol, because one senses that Roth's artistic statement is captured in this symbol of art.
Millicent
Everyman starts offering painting classes for his community, and several people come out to paint with him. There he meets Millicent, a woman who becomes an instant friend for him. He and she connect very deeply on life, and on the quest for meaning in life. Just like Everyman, Millicent struggles to care enough about the games of life to participate. He finally finds a deep wealth of love and intimacy with her, Platonically, but then she kills herself, symbolizing the painful irony of existential dread. Her symbolic suicide is a twist of the knife.
The grave digger
Finally, the man recalls struggling to piece together some theory of his life. Why has his life panned out the way it has? The symbol for this journey is his visit to his parents' grave where he meets a grave digger. The grave digger is a symbol for the human fate that everyone will face. He is death incarnate, and the man's encounter with death blesses him with important meaning. In light of death, he can conceptualize the inherent meaninglessness of life, especially because most of his emotions are rooted in his relationships to his parents, who—it turns out—were not deities as he believed, but just regular old human animals.
