Twisted

The wedding ring Julian chooses for Yasmin is an 8.92-carat canary yellow diamond framed by two trapezoid white diamonds. When he gives it to her, Jasmine tries to resist how much the ring—and Julian—attract her: “I don’t want to think about what it means that the man I hate more than the world picked something so close to what I would have chosen for myself” (163). To Julian, the ring is a symbol of ownership and possession, representing the vow Yasmin made to be his: “It’s my ring she’s wearing. It’s my last name she has” (198), he reminds himself when he believes Aidan might still be his competition for Yasmin’s love. The ring reveals how ownership and possession carry a sexual charge for Julian when he imagines Yasmin wearing the ring while she performs oral sex on him.

Yasmin’s camera becomes a symbol for her emerging self-realization as she returns, with Julian’s support, to what was a hobby and passion of her childhood. The camera allows Yasmin to look at the world from a safely mediated distance that shields her from feeling social anxiety around new people.

Photographs also represent a way to hold on to the past while moving to the next stage of life.