Joyland

The kite represents freedom, particularly freedom from the constraints of life. Mike describes flying his kite as a way of being able to fly himself. Devin thinks to himself that flying away would be especially important to a boy weighed down by a frail body. The subject of flight comes up again when Devin, Mike, and Annie are riding the Ferris wheel and Mike cries out that it is just like flying his kite. Finally, when Mike has died, Devin and Annie put some of his ashes in a pocket of the kite and fly it, allowing the ashes to trail out into the sky so that Mike, free of the weight of his body, is finally able to fly away as they let the kite go.

The office of Professor George B. Nako is a tiny pocket of magic in the ordinary world, a nook with walls covered with fake diplomas and student papers on fanciful subjects. It represents a childhood fantasy shared and cherished by the student body. When Devin goes back as an adult, that little corner of childhood is gone, but there is consolation in that it remains forever preserved in memory and imagination.