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The narrator describes her as the “color of poor gray Georgia earth” (Walker, par. 2). The color of the earth symbolizes that she is poor and does not possess any material wealth. To name some there is a black dress to describe the old woman’s garment, a white church to describe where she is heading, the silver steeple in the church which depicts its grandeur, and the most memorable before the story reveals the conflict is the frozen blond hair of the user.
The image of a blond usher was immediately followed by a clear description of who or what the old woman who is central to the story is. She is a colored woman inside a white person’s church. The use of Walker of a blond man as the first one to brush off the old lady is a major contrast to the woman’s color. The blond hair is the penultimate symbolism of the Caucasian race as no true African-American will have the same.
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