Wedding Ring Symbol Analysis

The wedding ring that Henry bought for Mona symbolizes her persistent presence in his memory. Henry’s narrative voice is often shockingly frank, giving the impression that he has nothing to conceal. Yet brief references to his estranged wife crop up now and again throughout the book, suggesting a heartsickness from which he has not fully freed himself. He confirms this late in the book, during his stint in Dijon. The wedding ring is an emblem of this lingering attachment: he bought it for Mona to give to her when her ship arrived in Paris, but the ship arrived without her on it. Stood up, Henry put the ring on his pinky, where it stayed for all the subsequent months and years that Mona never came, serving as a dull reminder of her and the ties that still bind him, however liberated he acts. One day, however, when extremely hungry and broke, Henry agrees to pawn the ring for less than it’s worth. He’s at first offended at the price offered, but he soon concedes to the necessity for food. The scene looks towards the end of the novel, when he weighs the emotional cost of giving up on Mona (and America) entirely and decides to do it. As Henry himself said early in the novel, loneliness is the most important thing for a writer. Just as he yielded up the wedding ring for economic necessity, he emotionally yields up Mona herself for artistic necessity. In this way, giving up the wedding ring was both a foreshadowing of and a step towards finally letting go of Mona.