So-nyo’s blue plastic sandals appear as a motif throughout the narrative. So-nyo hurt her foot one year while threshing wheat and wears the sandals because they’re easier on her injured foot. But this makeshift solution is temporary at best: The sandals served to bring So-nyo comfort, but now they bring pain, cutting her foot open. The sandals symbolize So-nyo. When she goes missing, the family believes the sandals were beige, but every person who claims to have seen So-nyo wandering around Seoul mentions an older woman wearing blue plastic sandals. The fact that no one in the family knows what color the sandals are echoes their lack of knowledge and misunderstanding of So-nyo herself.

Red roses symbolize a side of So-nyo that her family never saw—her zest for life. When she planted red roses at Hyong-chol’s first house in Seoul, he couldn’t believe that his mother loved something that wouldn’t bring her sustenance like potatoes or wheat or greens. So-nyo casually mentioned that she loved roses and wanted to plant them so that strangers could delight in the sight and fragrance. Hyong-chol never thought she’d bother planting something just because it was beautiful.