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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts
Blood
Blood is aligned with sacrifice and resilience in The Women, both in the sense of family ties and as a sign of injury or trauma. Blood and gore are everywhere during Frankie’s time in Vietnam. As a nurse, she is surrounded by injured soldiers, many of whom come into her unit already maimed or grievously wounded. There isn’t a day that goes by (aside from during R & R) where the sights and smells of blood aren’t embedding themselves into her memory. Each drop she wipes away from a living body is another effort to preserve life in a place where death feels relentless. Each person she is unable to save is a reminder of how little her individual efforts to slow the bloodshed matter.
At home, blood continues to haunt her. When Frankie returns from Vietnam to her family in California—her own military-obsessed flesh and blood—Bette and Connor treat her with disgust instead of gratitude. They take great pride in the McGrath name being associated with military honor, but the reality of the blood and sweat of Vietnam combat is too much to bear. They also chastise her when she returns home literally covered in blood after performing a life-saving tracheotomy. The McGraths are dramatically unsettled by any connection of their daughter to violence.
The Hero’s Wall
Frankie’s father keeps an entire wall of his office covered in military portraits, as a tribute to the McGrath history of military excellence. There are portraits of women there too, but not in military uniform. All of the women on the hero’s wall are wearing wedding dresses. The hero’s wall represents both familial recognition and exclusion, as it reinforces the harshly divided gender roles McGrath family members occupy. The wall honors the men in Frankie’s family who served in the military, and the women who married and supported them. No military women are in evidence. When Frankie offers her own photo to be included, her father’s refusal shows the general societal discomfort with the idea of women in warfare. His rejection also shows the broader lack of acknowledgment that women veterans face. Because the surgical nurses were not in active combat, Connor initially feels that Frankie’s sacrifice was less important than those of her male counterparts.
At The Last Best Place, Frankie reclaims the idea of the hero’s wall for her own purposes. Instead of celebrating only women who marry, she creates a new monument to honor women who served. Rather than excluding anyone who does not fit the McGrath mold, this new wall is a gesture toward inclusion by a McGrath. It’s a space where women veterans can see their contributions recognized.
Uniforms
Uniforms represent identity and belonging in The Women, especially as they apply to the military uniforms that identified US personnel in combat and in medical practices overseas. While she is in Vietnam, Frankie wears her uniform with pride. It makes her feel like a true McGrath, and she sees it as a symbol of her service and commitment. It’s a way of connecting with her dead brother Finley, and it also binds her to the larger chorus of everyone willing to sacrifice their safety for their country. The uniform gives her a sense of purpose in an environment where lives hang in the balance. It’s a visual marker of being in the correct place, no matter where she is.
However, when Frankie returns home the uniform takes on a new meaning. Instead of being celebrated, traveling in an army uniform makes her a target for hostility. Protesters at the airport see it as a symbol of the war they oppose, and people who can avoid helping her (like taxi drivers who refuse to pick her up) use it as a way to visually dismiss her. When she gets home, her family also view it with discomfort; to Bette and Connor the only “uniform” a McGrath woman should wear is a white dress. For Frankie, the uniform quickly goes from being a badge of honor to being a reminder of her alienation.
