The chandelier

The “monstrous” Chihuly chandelier in Dorothy’s apartment symbolizes Louis’s vanity, tastelessness and materialistic values (22). Dorothy hates this ostentatious artwork, which dominates the room and literally hangs over her, symbolizing the weight of misery that oppresses her in her own home.

White and red

The color white symbolizes the innocence and purity of the young girl on her wedding day, but it is also symbolic of death (hence the white cloth that the San Francisco plague victims hang from their windows). The “white banners of mourning” hanging over Afong’s new home encapsulate the irony, and the tragedy of her situation as a virginal widow (33). In contrast, the “bright red shoes, embroidered with flowers and songbirds” that Afong had made with her mother, and hoped to wear on her wedding day, are symbolic of her brightest hopes (30). She hides the red shoes when she...