1. “The Chambered Nautilus” is a sea creature, that lives in a shell. As it grows, it keeps adding chambers to its shell. Cofer has used this allusion to describe her Mama’s house. Similar to the Nautilus, more rooms were added to her Mama’s house as more children were born.
2. In the story, Cofer tells us that Mama would narrate stories if anyone had the privilege to spend a day alone with her. The stories were so good, that they would even pretend to be sick just to listen to the stories, even though they a paid a big price for that as they had to consume bitter herb purgatives.
3. Cofer refers to Mama’s room as the heart of the house because it was where her Mama lived and she is the one that keeps the family well and together. She listens