A dog (Symbol)
A dog is a symbol of affection, love, and loyalty. A little puppy, “a Shiba Inu,” is a present for Lotto from Mathilde. In spite of everything, Mathilde is “a good wife,” who manages to make Lotto’s “lifetime beautiful.” He has “never worried about a thing,” it is Mathilde who takes care of everything. She has been scrubbing his “toilet for twenty-three years” and doesn’t complain. Lotto feels betrayed when he finds out that he is not the only one man for her, but he omits the fact that her loyalty to him has never faltered, Mathilde has been always supporting him. She devotes her life to him and stays with him no matter what. It is not an easy task to live with a person whose ego is as big as Earth.
A wolf (Allegory)
A wolf with its grey fur, sharp fangs, and sad howl is an allegory of “grief.” Mathilde thought of “what her husband might have been thinking the moment he died.” Of course, she hoped that it was “her own younger face coming near his,” for she knew how much her husband depended on her. She wished she could be by his side then. Grief made her “whole body” to turn “inward.” Mathilde “had become a fist.” She “was not unfamiliar with grief,” that “old wolf had come sniffling around her house before.” Lotto used to think that he was lonely, abandoned by his own mother, unwanted. The truth was it was Mathilde.
Loneliness (Motif)
Every character in the novel is lonely or used to be lonely. One should differentiate between loneliness and solitude. Lotto wanted to kill himself just to show his mother and Sally how much abandoned and unloved he felt. Mathilde’s “loneliness was so huge it took the form of the upstairs hallway, dark and lined with locked doors.” Antoinette, Gawain, Sallie, Gwennie and many other characters look for warmth, understanding, and compassion too. “Don’t leave me,” are the words that Lotto doesn’t get tired to repeat. Those who know what loneliness try to avoid that state at any cost. That is the reason why Mathilde doesn’t open up to Lotto, for she doesn’t want him to leave her too.
