Fireflies
The book opens with a charming image of our heroine Melody in her wheelchair enjoying the visual delight of fireflies, One lands on her hand and seems to look right at her. She asks what he is thinking and on cue, the lightning bug fires up its glow as if sending her a signal. She asserts that Mr. Firefly was answering her because, after all, she knows all about communicating with speaking. The firefly is a complex symbolic incarnation of Melody herself.
Horses
Like many parents, Melody’s mother projects her own fascination with horseback riding onto her daughter, assuming that all those hours spent watching old westerns were an indication of a deep-seated desire within a daughter incapacitated by the cruelty of cerebral palsy. Melody does hold a desire to ride a horse, but within the restrictions of reality rather than fantasy. Riding a horse under the limitations of the obvious physical hurdles such activity poses thus becomes a symbol for overcoming one’s fears in order to experience what one imagines is impossible.
Zip Line
A zip line in concept can be a pretty terrifying thing for anyone. But imagine how exponentially horrifying the idea might be for someone in a wheelchair and lacking the complete autonomy over muscular control that cerebral palsy brings to the situation, The flight down the zip line is for Melody as it for everyone: it is like flying. And what does flying usually symbolize? Freedom. Complete, beautiful freedom from the limitations imposed upon all humanity.
Elvira
Elvira is the name that Melody has given to a device called the Medi-Talker. It is a sophisticated computer device which attaches to her wheelchair that is sort of like a computer tablet and is capable of producing speech among its other useful qualities. It is the communication aspect, however, which lends it symbolic status. While this particular term has gained a negative connotation, to say that Elvira symbolizes “normality” for Melody is meant only in the word’s most fundamental sense: enhanced communication of any thought Melody has at any moment puts her life in closer alignment with the overwhelming majority of the world’s population.
Final Level of Video Games
Melody informs us of a special ability within her brain structure to recall random trivial facts which get stored there much later in time. She once learned, for instance, the average summertime temperatures in Armenia which—unless one becomes a contestant on Jeopardy! perhaps—may be interesting but must certainly rank among the useless facts to learn for most people. Nevertheless, it is a fact learned which has never sank down into consciousness below the level at which she can instantly recall it. Another useless piece of information for her personally, considering her physical condition, are the shortcuts to a number of online video games. This ability of the brain to work perfectly while completely out of sync with her physical abilities perfectly symbolizes the complexity of brain which so very many people think they understand so perfectly that found their entire ideology around upon this ignorance.
