"Maybe" Symbol
There is no definite plan for either Dennie or Susie to come home; "maybe" they'll come home in the spring. This small, but extremely important, word, is a symbol of the way in which they both have yearned for a life that is less structured and planned out for them, and symbolizes the appeal of the hippie culture to them for its absence of framework. Neither girl had a plan when they left home, beyond leaving and going to live with a group of hippies that their respective boyfriends suggested. The word "maybe" is symbolic of the way in which they want their lives to roll out in a more fluid and organic fashion and in a less prescriptive one.
Foot Washing Symbol
When Dennie arrives home she washes her feet in the family's pool. This is symbolic and has an almost biblical symbolism to it in that she is being cleansed of her past sins (running away, joining a hippie colony, doing drugs) and baptizing herself back into the Miller family again. It is also a symbol of washing away her hippie lifestyle and enabling her to become a part of her family again.
Ransacked Room Symbol
When Susie returns home from school she finds that her bedroom has been turned upside down and looks like it has been ransacked, because her parents have been searching for her stash of pills and evidence of her drug use. This is a symbol to Susie of her complete lack of freedom and of their lack of respect for her as a person. It is also a symbol to her of the way that she is viewed by her family.
Dennie's Hair Symbol
When Dennie arrives home her hair is long and tangled, and unwashed. She chops it off into a shaggy bob style that she had before she left home. This is symbolic for her. Her long hair symbolizes the hippie life she has been leading whilst her short hair symbolizes the life that she led before she ran away. Cutting her hair symbolizes a return to her old life, as if the interim existence had never happened.
Old Bedroom Symbol
Dennie spends time looking at her old toys and dolls and reminiscing about them. Her thoughts about them are symbolic both of the fact that she yearns to be a little girl again, and of the fact that the childhood she remembers having is not the childhood that she actually had. This is a symbol of her needing to reframe the things in her life that she cannot cope with and making them into something that she finds more emotionally palatable.
