The key ring that Jazzlyn drops during the police raid is an item that becomes rather charged with meaning as Let the Great World Spin progresses. It changes hands multiple times—from Jazzlyn’s to Corrigan’s, from Corrigan’s to Lara’s, from Lara’s to Ciaran’s, and from Ciaran’s to—finally—Tillie’s. Not only does it represent the ways in which even the smallest things can connect humans through long, complicated inheritances, but it also stands for the danger that Jaslyn and Janice face as children of a young prostitute who is forced—either by law or by death—to abandon them. (And notably, the key ring even bears pictures of the two children). It becomes clear that, if Gloria hadn’t shown up at the right place at the right time in order to adopt them, they too may have been passed from person to person just like the key ring that carries their images.
The Key Ring Symbol Timeline in Let the Great World Spin
