There are several small symbols scattered throughout the novel. Of these, the most thematically significant are farming as equality and dolls as friendship, both of which center around the complicated relationship between the Mendezes and the Munemitsus.

Both families are farmers who work to nurture the land and grow produce, which in turn nourishes their communities. Without food, humans can’t survive, and without rich soil, food can’t grow. In this way, farming can, in principle, represent both diversity (the soil) and equality (everyone needs it to live). Mr. Mendez’s callused hands and the Munemitsus’ efforts to cultivate the land also reflect the hard work and effort to fight for and value diversity in American society. In the incarceration camps, Japanese Americans cultivated the unforgiving desert soil to grow plants and vegetables, just as they had cultivated the worse farmland in California when they immigrated, reflecting the healthy richness of a diverse environment compared to the harsh desert (that is, white superiority and racism). Sylvia notices these vegetable plots at Poston, her first conscious realization of the similarities and struggles of Japanese Americans along with her own.

On Sylvia’s end, Gonzalo is also the one who fights hardest for integration, speaking with the Westminster superintendent, rallying other Latino parents, and ultimately going to court for the right to educational equality.