Importance of Doves

For Mooshum, the doves represent flight and freedom, revealed by his decision to run off with Junesse rather than become a priest. But for the town as a whole, the doves come to symbolize bad luck and misfortune. Their scouring of the landscape and crops – destroying life – serves as a symbolic precursor of the lives the residents themselves will be taking soon, both in the murders and the subsequent lynchings. The doves also come to serve as harbingers for the eventual demise of the town. As the town declines late in the novel, Mooshum has a vision of doves, portending the death of the town.