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

The Bell Tower

The bell tower is both the location of the inciting incident and a symbol for how isolating mental illness is for those who suffer from it. Historically more common to churches than to high schools, a bell tower is an old-fashioned structure, popular in a time when most people did not have timepieces of their own and relied on the sound of the bells to know when to work and when to worship. The bell tower at Bartlett High is a symbol of how distant Violet and Finch are from their peers whom they literally hover above in the tower. It is also a figurative symbol of the fact that Bartlett High is a tiny world in and of itself. Though each mark time differently, both Violet and Finch are obsessive keepers of time. Neither of them alludes to the bell tower’s significance, but its looming presences sets the tone for their initial meeting. 

Eleanor’s Glasses

Eleanor’s glasses are a symbol for how Violet copes with her grief and acts as a yardstick for how well she is dealing with it. Most people wear glasses in order to see better, but Violet wears these as an outward display of grief even though they give her a headache. When Violet brainstorms a new idea for a collaborative writing project, her act of taking off Eleanor’s glasses and putting them in Eleanor’s old room shows that she is both ready to create ideas without Eleanor and to begin to move on. Soon after, Finch gifts her a pair of goggles for their trip to Blue Hole. With these, she can see clearly, offering a hopeful view of her future. 

Water

Finch seeks solace in water throughout the story, and Blue Hole is ultimately where he seeks what he believes to be the final solace of death. The first time Finch and Violet make love, it is after a day of swimming at Blue Hole. There, Finch delights Violet with a game of Marco Polo and upsets her when he stays under water too long searching for the bottomless black hole. When Finch resurfaces from the water that is the same sky-blue as his eyes, Violet expresses real anger toward him for the first time because beneath the surface of the water is everything that she doesn’t know about Finch, and she worries that this unknowable force will consume him. 

Later, unafraid, Violet dives deep in those same waters looking for Finch’s body. After her final wanderings, she again treads water there, but not in the sense that she is merely keeping her head above water. This time, she stays happily suspended in the blue water under the blue sky.