Big Joe Brady’s restaurant symbolizes the relationship between Jimmy and Bob and, more broadly, the way that time can impact a relationship. At least initially, the restaurant seems to represent the past, present, and future of Jimmy and Bob’s friendship, since it is the last place they saw each other as well as the place they promised to see each other next. However, when they arrive there 20 years later, they not only find that the restaurant is gone, but also that they’ve both changed beyond recognition. While Bob has led a life of crime, Jimmy has become a police officer and, accordingly, is forced to arrest his old best friend. Just like the shuttered restaurant, then, their friendship does not truly exist in the present—only in the past.
Big Joe Brady’s Restaurant Symbol Timeline in After Twenty Years
