The centraltheme is the fleeting passage of our lives and the use of the jug is a symbolic representation ofpast friends. Presumably, when he was younger, he would eat, drink, and be merry with hisfriends. Now his only friend left to share his life is his "jug"(27). He treats the jug with utmostrespect," as a mother" (25) would a child, and like it was a living thing " he set the jug down"because he knows "that most things break"(28). This is important because the bond with all of his family and friends has been broken by their deaths So this jug is the last link that connects him to his past, friends, and family. He does not want thatbroken, too. He can sit, sip, and reminisce about the ghost that is his past. With the jug besidehim, Eben Flood re-creates his past world and no longer has need of the present one. Perhaps,symbolically, the jug represents Mr. Flood's life and once it breaks, he will no longer exist, his lifeon earth will be over. I know from several class discussions that the use of the jug and drinking was seen asperhaps Mr. Flood's way of coping with the present world and his past, and the fact that he isforsaken is seen as an excuse or the reason that he now drinks. The drink has become his only realsurviving friend, the only one that has not left him alone in this world. Mr. Flood's Party is nowover. When someone has a party, he generally invites other human beings for companionship. Atthis party, laughs, hopes, dreams, wishes, and promises would be shared. Now, Mr. Flood's lifeseems over, so he has turned to his jug which represents all that is his past, true or broken, andthis becomes his party, his future, his life. Mr. Flood, who is like a ghost in a no-man world,raises his jug like "a silent horn" and like "Roland's ghost" blows his last triumphant salute to theworld (20)....
