Symbols in "Janus"

The bowl in “Janus” symbolizes many thoughts and feelings that Andrea has about her life. The bowl seems to be the main character in some senses in this story. The reader is told in the opening sentence “The bowl was perfect” (205). This is a good beginning to the story because Andrea believes this to be true because it represents feelings she has about many things.
Andrea, a real estate agent, uses her bowl to help sell houses by placing it on a table for potential buyers to look at. She believes that the bowl is the reason for her success as a real estate agent. The perfect bowl was a gift to Andrea from a lover she had. She did not really want to buy the bowl at first, but her lover bought it for her anyways. The day he bought her the bowl was the same day that he gave her the choice to start a life with him and leave her old one or he would have to leave. She did not choose and he said that she “was always too slow to know what she really loved” (208). Th...