The Plane Crash
When Henry wakes up in the early morning, he witnesses a burning plane's flight from his window, one that likely terminates in a crash. This event hangs in the back of his mind all day, and he eagerly anticipates its arrival on the news. The uncertainty of the nature of the crash, however, makes this event into a symbol of the ambiguities of life and the tendency of humanity to assume the worst about the unknown. The plane crash turns out to be innocuous and the pilots innocent, but the question of terrorism still characterizes the crash throughout the novel.
Huntington's Disease
Baxter, the thug whose car collides with Henry's on the way to his squash game, suffers from Huntington's Disease, a neurological disorder that causes the brain to deteriorate. Henry's thoughts often revolve around this phenomenon, and Baxter's inevitable affliction comes to represent the fate forced upon a person by his or her genes, an unfortunate yet unavoidable circumstance of life.
Daisy's Pregnancy
When Baxter invades Perowne's house, accompanied by his associate Nigel and armed with weapons, he forces Daisy to strip naked. When she does so, her family realizes that she is pregnant, probably entering her second trimester. This pregnancy comes to represent hope for the future in the face of disaster. Daisy is insistent on having the baby, which will be the beginning of a life discovered by a cruel act of manipulation. Despite the terrors of the day, Daisy's family comes out with hope.
Theo's Music
Henry is a materialist and an atheist, so it is especially important when he describes Theo's music as "a glimpse of what we might be, of our best selves, and of an impossible world in which you give everything to others, but lose nothing of yourself" (Ch. 3). This music comes to represent the beauty life can afford despite the seeming hopelessness that pervades the news. Not everything is getting worse, as Perowne argues, and the music performed by his talented son is a prime example of the beauties of life.
Baxter's Red BMW
Baxter owns a red BMW, a classy sports car that symbolizes his personality. He is an afflicted man who must resort to displays of power and wealth to win loyalty, and his car is an example of these displays. Its color, red, is evocative of rage and passion, both of which fly from Baxter at the slightest provocation. The damage done to the car in the accident, furthermore, represents the slow destruction of Baxter's brain due to his neurological disease - he's trying to hold it together despite the accumulation of minor deteriorations.
