Joy/Hulga has two elements that are used alternately to describe her, the glasses which contrast her weak eyes and are a sign of her intellectuality, and the wooden leg which he wields sound and appearance as a weapon against his mother's solicitude. When Manley Pointer takes off her glasses and steals her wooden leg, she is left totally weak and vulnerable. The Bible seller himself uses the illusion of the Bible as a symbol. He claimed to have a suitcase full of Bibles to sell, but his moral laxity is revealed when he opens the suitcase to reveal two Bibles, one of which has a hidden secret.