The Zoo
There is frequent imagery from the Bronx Zoo, where Jennings would often go as a child when he was abandoned or neglected, or when his foster situation was abusive. The Zoo represents a kind of synchronicity between what Jennings experiences in his daily life and what the evidence of daily life shows him. Perhaps to most people, the thought of animals in cages might seem burdensome, but the reason the zoo imagery comes through the prose so powerfully is because the boy loves the animals. He doesn't have a good family out there in the real world, but he is one in nature with these other caged animals, who are orphans in many cases.
Pictures of orphanhood
Orphanhood is demonstrated through the abandonment of the father to his own life, when he decided he would rather be a relentless alcoholic until he dies than to try accepting his role and responsibilities. Then it is depicted in the mother who cannot care enough for her children to provide for them, but instead abandons her son at an orphanage. So is he an orphan? Not technically, and yet, the children and he are the same. Orphanhood is therefore depicted in many different ways, because it means different things to different people.
Dysfunction as a home
The imagery of houses and homes is an ironic set of images, because for the young Jennings Michael, they are not homes, but cages. At night, when it's time for him to go to sleep, that's when his autonomy is most limited during his orphanhood. Also, at his home, where he begins his journey and where he returns to reassess the situation for a brief time—that home is literally the domain of all his childhood abuse, neglect, and nightmarish scenes of abandonment.
Images of civic order
The most comforting imagery in the novel is the imagery associated with authority and order. With pure chaos and whim reigning at home, with a capricious, narcissistic mother, Jennings craves a strong central authority figure who has his interests in mind and who is powerful and able to execute justice on his behalf. He gravitates toward police officers and ends up becoming one. He is finally adopted not by a suburban family, but by his own bus driver. The city itself is his family.
