The Savage motif
Because the jungle is the domain of savage nature, this novel's beginning and ending are no mistake, both set in the Jamaican jungle. In the opening, savage men are establishing the infrastructure for a criminal empire. In the end, those evil men martyr the protagonist, whose name is—Savage. The name Savage calls attention to the instinctual, animal-primal nature of Clare's psychology.
Government and power
This novel focuses on two kinds of injustice: the historical racism of the American South, and the malformation of the government in Jamaica. Both are portraits of human power, because in the American South, Clare's life is severely limited by her race. Then in Jamaica, it's like the Wild West, because the gangs are paying the government and then enforcing their own law under the nose of a silent government. The portraits form a motif of broken forms of power.
Harriet as a symbol
Harriet is a transgender woman who has ties to the Jamaican Revolution. One interesting interpretation of her character might be to consider her as a symbol for intersectionality, because her psychic experience of gender does pit her closed-minded community against her (this novel is set in the past). Then again, her experience of gender is itself symbolic, sharing elements with Clare's symbolic relationship to race. They both land in atypical places on identity spectrums.
Bobby as a symbol
In addition to Vietnam being foreshadowing to the conflict in Jamaica that actually kills the protagonist of this novel, Bobby also serves as a symbol. He symbolizes empathy, because through her relationship to him, her understanding of patience and empathy are challenged, given the horror of his mental state, riddled as he is by PTSD. Specifically, this symbolic character symbolizes the drama of experience, because he cannot relate well to those who don't understand his deathly panic.
The chaotic motif
In their experiences of reality, Clare, Jennie, Harriet, and Kitty all have difficult lives, full of chaos. In order to underscore that chaos, the novelist has imposed this motif: The jungle is a symbol for chaos, and that is where the novel begins and ends. There is the chaotic infection of Clare's womb which is a reminder of mortality, and Bobby's experience of PTSD is a reminder of mortality as well. All fall within the domain of chaos, because they make the character less likely to enjoy life's changing nature.
