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The Koppie

The Koppie is a symbol for Hortensia’s desire for inner peace and her present restlessness. It is a place she walks regularly as a form of escape from Peter’s illness and all it symbolizes. When she becomes house-bound from her leg injury, she regularly looks out to the Koppie as a reminder of that sense of freedom. At the end of the novel, the Koppie is re-landscaped with native foliage, and Hortensia and Marion regularly walk there together, symbolizing how that sense of inner peace is no longer aspirational, but real.

The Silver Tree

The silver tree in Hortensia’s backyard is a symbol of Katterijn’s history of slavery. Beulah wishes to bury her grandmother’s ashes below this tree because it is the site of former slave lodgings where her grandmother lived.

Alvar

Alvar, Marion’s dachshund, is a symbol of the...

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