“Pomegranate Seeds”
Josie recounts, “I saw her (Willie) hand first, veiny and pale, draped over the arm of an upholstered wingback. Her nails, glossy red like pomegranate seeds, could pop a balloon with a quick flick. Clusters of gold diamonds nearly every finger.” Pomegranate underscores the conspicuousness of Willie’s nails. She has performed a manicure on them so they will be appealing and stunning.
Jollies
Willie states, “I’ve got good business…Men think we’re headed to war. If that’s true, everyone will want their last jollies. We’d work well together, Louise.” Jollies are representative of sex. The men would prefer delighting in sexual pleasure before they are commissioned to participate in war. Louise’s profession as a prostitute makes her the target for men desiring passion.
“Half of the Equation”
Josie expounds, “They acted like they felt sorry for me… The wealthy women pretended it singed their tongue to say whore. They’d whisper it and raise their eyebrows. Then they’d fake an expression of shock like the word itself crawled into their pants with a case of the clap. They didn’t need to feel sorry for me. I was nothing like mother. After all, Mother was only half of the equation.” Josie appeals to sympathy of other women due to being a prostitute's daughter. Nevertheless, she is sure that she would not end up like her mother. The 'half equation' denotes hidden attributes that sets apart Josie from her mother. Josie is convinced that being a prostitute's daughter is not a condemnation.
'Movie Star'
The narrator recounts, “How could I be familiar to a former Vanderbilt football player from Tennessee who looked like a movie star and liked poetry? But his expression had been genuine, not like the one of the sweet-talking men with bloodshot eyes that I saw at Willie’s when I clean in the mornings.” Comparing the player to a movie star underscores his appeal. He is charming because he exhibits genuineness which would draw any female’s attention. The movie star’s appearance and mannerism differentiate him from other men most of whom are insincere and solely interested in intimacy.
A Hole
The narrator speculates, “Most men would leave with a grin after they’d done their business (sex).The men who stayed the whole night had a lot of money, but also a lack of something else, like they had a hole in their soul too big to be patched." The men compensate prostitutes for sex. They are longing for emotional intimacy which they suppose could be bought by money. However, their holes, which connote emotional emptiness, cannot be filled because the sex they receive from prostitutes is conditional, and hence not based on genuine love.
