Lulu’s stamp books, which she redeems for household items and personal goods, are a symbol of her desire for time alone to spend as she chooses. This activity, her only intellectual outlet, is performed “in the hour between when Henry le[aves] for work and Wesley w[akes] up” (9). Most of her life is devoted to caring for Henry and Wesley’s domestic needs: cleaning, cooking, shopping, and so on. However, her stamp books are an enjoyable break from the otherwise routine and monotonous days: “one of [her] favorite pastimes, especially when [she] needed a moment to get lost in a rhythm” (9).

The stamp books also symbolize the positive and negative sides of postwar consumer culture in the US in the 1950s. Lulu has had little choice over the place where she lives: They moved to Greenwood for Henry’s job, Henry chose their home’s floor plan, and his mother selected their décor. Lulu, who dislikes Henry’s mother’s style, often redeems her stamp books for items to replace the objects her mother-in-law foisted upon her—the only way she can reject this unwanted inheritance and make the space she lives in her own, given the fact that she does not have her own income or access to money.