The rose as a holy relic
There is a relationship between the boy's pursuit of the unattainable glory of love and the mythic symbol of questing for holy relics. Instead of trying to find the Holy Grail, for instance, this young man is on a quest for the sacred source of love. His obsession leads him to find one particular instance of that love, the romantic aspect of it. But this is a quest for the divine, for fulfillment and for a deeper appreciation for himself, so there is definitely a religious component to the rose.
The rose as the consummation of desire
Another interpretation of the rose symbol is that the rose represents the fulfillment of latent sexual desires for a woman. The adolescent in the book is subjected to Cupid's obsessive curse, causing him to seek a particular girl to help him fulfill the new romantic and sexual desires he feels addicted to.
The forbidden fruit image
By including the rose as an unattainable object of potentially limitless worth, there is another parallel to the story of Adam and Eve and the fall of man. Just as the mythic couple was tempted by the knowledge of the forbidden fruit, so also is the narrator tempted by the promise of romantic and sexual experience.
The garden guardians as a symbol for the unknown
Another archetypal symbol also appears in the garden with the boy—the enemy guardians who take his beloved away from him. Remember also that in the biblical fall of man, Adam and Eve are removed by the garden guardians. In the ancient orient, Buddha's garden also had two guardians. Joseph Campbell calls this image the "Guardians of the Mystery that Lies Behind Pairs of Opposites." What he means by that is that guardians (especially garden guardians) often represent the strange union of opposite forces—in this case those forces are the masculinity of the boy and the femininity of his sacred rose.
The Narcissus Fountain as an allegory for self-esteem
One allegorical interpretation of the Narcissus Fountain is that it represents the question of self-worth, since Narcissus is the god who fell in love with himself. By peering into the fountain, the narrator is asking, "Do I love myself?" and by becoming addicted to a perfect rose, he answers the question backwards—"If I got a beautiful girl to tell me she loved me, I would feel loved." In other words, his obsession stems from an issue within himself, a frustrated, embarrassed sense of self that needs the validation of others.
