Previous Next

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.  

 The Chinese New Year Party 

At the beginning of the film, Evelyn’s attention is divided between the audit of her business, a strained marriage, tension with her daughter, and the arrival of her demanding father, Gong Gong, at their home in Southern California. These various stresses come to a head when Evelyn plans a Chinese New Year party to mark Gong Gong’s trip to the United States and thank the local community that patronizes the laundromat. The Chinese New Year party represents the confident, capable image that Evelyn would like to project to others. For her, a successful party proves that she is in control of her own life and has achieved her goals in moving to the United States. This is particularly important to her due to the presence of Gong Gong, who previously disavowed her for marrying Waymond, though they have since reached a tense reconciliation.  

In her rush to prepare for the party, however, she continues to neglect Waymond and pushes Joy further away. In one universe where Evelyn throws the party, the event is a success until Deirdre gives authorization to hold the laundromat in lien and Evelyn, affected by the deeply pessimistic attitude of Jobu, gives a strange speech to the guests before smashing a window of the laundromat. The failure of the party is a source of shame and humiliation for Evelyn, who had hoped to show her community and family that she is in control of her life. Ultimately, however, Evelyn realizes what matters to her most after this embarrassing incident. She is inspired by Waymond’s strength when she sees that he has been able to convince Deirde to give them more time to file audit paperwork with the IRS. Further, her conversation with Deirdre, who admits that she acted in a crazed manner after her husband divorced her, helps her to realize that everyone has their own difficulties and insecurities. Touched by what she has experienced, Evelyn reconciles with Joy, expressing her love for her daughter.  

The Everything Bagel 

Alpha Waymond warns Evelyn that Jobu has developed a secret and powerful weapon with which she intends to destroy the multiverse. The weapon, Jobu later reveals, is a powerful, void-like object that takes the form of an “everything bagel.” The name of the object is an ironically playful pun that plays on the notion of a bagel that has “everything” on it. Tired of the endless realities that she has experienced as a result of her verse-jumping, Jobu intends to use the bagel to end her own existence, which she believes holds no purpose or value. The bagel symbolizes Jobu’s nihilistic belief that life is meaningless, an attitude that she developed after encountering countless alternative universes simultaneously. When Evelyn fails to find a more hopeful message in her own experiences with the multiverse, Jobu decides to enter the Bagel. Evelyn, however, is inspired by her love for her family and Waymond’s faith in goodness, and she pulls Jobu away from the Bagel, supported by Waymond and, even more surprisingly, by Alpha Gong Gong, who previously argued that Jobu must be destroyed by any means necessary. In turning away from the Everything Bagel, Jobu and Evelyn both place their faith in the future and in their family.  

Googly Eyes 

At the beginning of the film, Evelyn is frustrated by Waymond’s playful attitude, especially as the dates of their IRS audit and the Chinese New Year party grow closer. He jokes around with customers instead of addressing more urgent concerns and places plastic “googly eyes” on objects around their house. These googly eyes, which serve no purpose but give objects a funny appearance, represent Waymond’s playful and spontaneous attitude. Evelyn’s frustration with them marks, in turn, the joyless preoccupation with work that she demonstrates early in the film. Later in the film, however, Evelyn learns to embrace the comic and absurd aspects of life. Inspired by Waymond’s characteristic optimism, she attempts to show Jobu that a person can find joy and happiness in life, even if life is difficult or appears to be meaningless. In a universe where Jobu and Evelyn take the form of rocks resting near a cliff, Evelyn appears with googly eyes in an effort to make Jobu laugh, though Jobu continues to resist Evelyn’s growing optimism. The googly eyes, white circles with a black center, are, visually and symbolically, the inverse of the Everything Bagel, which appears as a black circle with a glowing white center. At the conclusion of Evelyn’s conflict with Jobu, she places a googly eye at the center of her own forehead, suggesting that she has opened her “third eye,” associated in both Hinduism and Buddhism with Enlightenment. Evelyn’s enlightenment, then, occurs when she finds joy and humor in the absurdity of life.  

Previous section Motifs Next section Setting

Take a Study Break