Janus, a Roman god, is the god of transitions and has two faces that allow him to look into both the future and the past. In Ann Beattie's short story "Janus", she uses a bowl that allows her to symbolically represent Andrea's two-faced life and her transition to losing composure. Firstly, the bowl is used to represent her extramarital affair with her lover. Likewise, it is used to show the faulty relationship between her and her husband. Finally, the bowl represents the deterioration of Andrea's self-control. By using the bowl symbolically, Beattie is able to show Andrea's downward spiral into a chaotic life. Andrew, the protagonist, is very similar to the Roman god Janus as he lives a two-faced life. His extramarital affair is essentially what leads to his loss of self-control. The bowl symbolizes the relationship between her and her lover because "[he] bought it for [her]" (320, Beattie). The bowl symbolizes her relationship because Andrea is extremely attached to the bowl, as she is to her lover. Being so attached to the bowl, his lover, stimulates Andrea's lack of self-control. Likewise, the bowl symbolizes how fragile his relationship is. Andrea is very uncomfortable with the idea that she might lose her lover and the reader learns this when she says that "the idea of ​​harm persisted" (319, Beattie). This shows how two-faced Andrea is because she is married but cares more about a bowl, which symbolizes her lover, than her husband. This in turn leads to his loss of self-control. Furthermore, the bowl is always placed in a place where it can be shown to everyone else. However, his relationship is very enigmatic. When Ann Beattie states, "instead of simply moving a jug or plate, [removes] all other objects from the [table", the reader is shown as a double-sided A... in the center of the card... ... .or loss of self-control because he cannot control his feelings and his life has become very inconclusive. The story ends with a "vanishing point on the horizon" (320, Beattie) that leads the reader to believe that her life will go on. Thus showing that Andrea will try to fix his life, but from what the reader has learned, his life is too chaotic to be fixed. Throughout the story, Beattie symbolically uses a bowl to characterize Andrea and show the reader how his life has two sides. and that he is losing his temper. The bowl symbolizes three main components that represented Andrea's life; his relationship, his marriage and his loss of self-control. The bowl allowed Beattie to show the reader that something so important in someone's life can essentially bring them down or even make them a hypocritical person. Works Cited "Janus" by Ann Beattie