Symbol for the primitive forces
Before leaving the prison, Shadow spends some time with another enigmatic character, an African-American man named Sam Fetisher. Shadow notes how Sam appears to be ageless and untouched by the outside events and how he is wise. Sam, just like other characters in the novel, is a symbol for something bigger. His last name suggests that he is connected in some way or another with occult powers, with primitive powers that are connected with voodoo. In this sense, Sam Fetisher is a symbol that stands for primitive forces born before civilization and before any other type of occult powers appeared in the rest of the world.
Just for fun
An idea that appears as a motif in the novel is that sex can be used as a distraction and there doesn’t need to be a real connection between a man and a woman for it to happen. Shadow’s fellow inmates and not only seem to all believe that love doesn’t really exist between a man and a woman and that there is nothing wrong in pursuing a promiscuous life.
The birth of a hero
After Shadow agrees to work for Mr. Wednesday, be brings Shadow a golden drink that tastes unusual for Shadow. Me. Wednesday tells Shadow that the drink is mead, something only heroes and Gods drink. In mythology, Gods and heroes were often portrayed drinking mead and it is mentioned multiple times that it was a drink used exclusively by supernatural beings. By giving Shadow mead to drink, Mr. Wednesday facilitates his birth as a hero and marks in a symbolic way the moment he stops being a simple man and starts being someone bound to do great things in life.
Death is not the end
A common motif found in the novel is that death is not the end but rather the beginning of something new. Even before Shadow knew about who he really was and what his powers are, he had weird dreams where he saw trees made out of bones and even Low Key told him that graveyards are just Bone Orchards. All of this suggests that something can grow from death and graveyards are not pictured as desolated places but rather places where new things can grow from.
Dirt
In the same night after Laura’s funeral, Shadow is visited by Laura who was reanimated by the gold coin Shadow dropped in her casket. However, Shadow remains seemingly unaffected by Laura’s visit and he even fetches her a pack of cigarettes when she asks him to. What makes Shadow break however is seeing the mud left behind by Laura in his hotel room and the presence of the mud from the graveyard reminds Shadow that his wife really died. The mud here is thus used as a symbol for one’s mortality and death.
