Sweetbitter

Content Warning: This guide contains discussion of drug abuse, sex, violence, and mental-health stigmatizations.

Wine is a symbol for awareness, patience, and growth in this novel. One of the first lessons Tess learns about wine is how to let it breathe and interact with the air. This changes the taste of the wine for the better. This symbolically demonstrates that with patience and through interacting with the world around her, a person can become better too. Wine also becomes more valuable and higher quality with time. Though Tess is put in a box for her youth, the symbolism of wine’s growth over time implies that Tess will eventually grow out of her youth and be better for it. Like a fine wine, people can get better with time.

The restaurant is both a setting and a symbol. Symbolically, the restaurant is a family. Staff members work so closely with one another, and the success of the restaurant is dependent on their symbiotic dynamics. The staff members all know secrets or rumors about one another. There are a lot of intermingling sexual and romantic dynamics between them as well. There is drama and love between them all.