Typhoid
Maryna's bout of typhoid is an inciting incident in her life. To her, it symbolizes the short nature of human life and the absolute assurance of death. In light of this, she becomes a voice of reason and speaks boldly to her community about the need to move and make a better life for their selves. Surprisingly (to her), it works. The fever is a symbol for her urgency and power, because it enables her to be bold.
America
The action of the novel takes place as the title suggests, In America, where Maryna and her family and community must rally together. They realize that even their best is not enough to survive as farmers, which is a symbol that in America, a different kind of hustle is required, other than the willingness to work, which they shared. This is a complex symbol, because each character has a different experience of America. Some go back to Europe, and Maryna fulfills her destiny—a symbolic reminder that in America, there is a spectrum of opportunity.
The acting
Because she has lived a sincerely heroic life, Maryna is able to share versions of herself on stage that were formerly unavailable to her, so acting is a symbol for mastery of the self. She is involved in an emotional dance when she is acting on stage, and her characters are more vibrant, with more depth because of her suffering. Acting is therefore a symbol for art as a means of transfiguring suffering into something truly powerful and transformative.
Critical acclaim
The critical acclaim that Maryna receives for her performance as Madame Marina Zalenska (whose name is symbolically similar to Maryna's own), Maryna receives an archetypal symbol from America. She is a success. She is acclaimed not only as an actress, but as an immigrant and as a person (which are not automatically given in America, unfortunately). The success she finds in her field earns her the right to feel like she has completed her hero's journey.
California
By going to California, Maryna shows her own willingness to play a high stakes game in life. This might come from her experience of typhoid, or from the character formation she found by working on a farm—or perhaps it is just native to herself. But in any case, California is clearly a metaphor for her full expression. She is willing to lay herself on the line in order to make it big. She is like a gold miner heading west, hoping to find something priceless: a better life.
