The events of the novel occur during the 2008 American presidential election, during which then-senator Barack Obama—black-identified, the child of a multiracial union, and the son of Kenyan man—was on the cusp of becoming the first person of color to become president. Obama appears in Chapter 1 on a magazine cover with the headline “WHITES’ GREAT HOPE? BARACK OBAMA AND THE DREAM OF A COLOR-BLIND AMERICA” (5). He serves as the symbol of a more racially-equal America and the possibility of the immigrant’s American Dream becoming a reality in the novel.

The limousine is a classic symbol of wealth because it indicates that the time of the person driven about by the driver is too valuable to be wasted in doing something as mundane as driving, and that the labor of the driver is at the disposal of the affluent passenger. The limo symbolizes the difference in class position between Clark and Jende. The limo is also an interior that gives the reader insight into the terrible reality of the lives of some of the rich. As a driver, Jende witnesses Mighty and Cindy in tears, the destruction of Lehman Brothers and Clark’s role in it, and the fraying relationship between Vince and his family.