Symbol: Bad Stove
A bad stove is a symbol of an unhappy life. Women used to spend a lot of time in their kitchens cooking food for their families, which was why a good stove was important. Unlike Martha’s stove, Minnie’s stove was a bad one. Martha “was swept into her own thoughts, thinking of what it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with.” Even the most cheerful and optimistic woman “gets discouraged and loses her heart” if she has to fight with such a stove. The broken stove and dirt in the kitchen symbolize that Mr. Wright was not interested in improving their situation.
Symbol: Bird
The dead canary is a symbol indicating that Minnie Foster is dead while Minnie Wright is still alive. Young Minnie was like a canary herself, but then she was "killed" by her emotionless and hard husband, replaced by Minnie Wright. Martha remembered Minnie wearing “a white dress with blue ribbons” and singing happily in the chorus. Martha “knew John Wright” and knew that he “wouldn’t like the bird, the thing that sang.” This man destroyed the free and happy spirit of Minnie.
Symbol: Quilt
The quilt is a symbol of the way in which Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters knit together the disparate clues and observations to form a patchworked but comprehensible whole. The knotting of the quilt, which was Minnie's preferred strategy, also symbolizes the "knotting" of the noose around her husband's neck.
Motif: Half-done things
Not only does the story begin with Martha Hale's half-done bread, but it also continues to demonstrate that half-finished tasks are more than they seem to be—especially for a woman in this time and place. The sugar, bag, table, and quilt are not examples of how Minnie is a bad housekeeper, as the men claim: rather, they are indications that something bothered her and interrupted her business. The half-done tasks are clues that lead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to a fuller understanding of what Minnie's life was like and why the death of the canary would have been so wrenching.
Symbol: Telephone
A telephone connects a person to another, and, more broadly, to the outside world. Minnie is not allowed to have a telephone because her husband does not want her to indulge in friendship or socialization. Thus, she is completely cut-off, living an isolated and melancholy existence. The assertion that John prevented Minnie from having a phone symbolizes just how controlling he was over her.
