The Wasp Factory

The majority of the novel passes without the reader knowing what the Wasp Factory is, even though Frank clearly defers to it as a sort of oracle:

The Wasp Factory is part of the pattern because it is part of life—and even more so—part of death. Like life it is complicated, so all the components are there. The reason it can answer questions is because every question is a start looking for an end, and the Factory is about the End—death, no less (117).

The Factory is a machine that Frank built from a clock face he salvaged at the landfill. It divides into 12 paths, each ending in a different death. Frank places wasps on the clock face and, eventually, they choose a path, which terminates at one of the twelve numerals.

The Factory symbolizes the bizarre nature of Frank’s belief system, which would be incomprehensible to anyone but him. It also represents the vast gulf between his mind and the majority of other people. The Factory symbolizes Frank’s belief in magic, his own power, and a degree of predestination. However, at the end of the novel, Frank—now Frances—appears to be on the verge of choosing a different path and shifts his attention from the sameness of endings to the autonomy of the journey before the end.