Hermit Crab
Mae reads from a textbook. It is an entry on hermit crabs. This comes late in the play and is clearly intended as imagery which reflects the social circumstances of her, Lloyd’s and Henry’s lives:
“This is a hermit crab. He is called a hermit because lives in empty shells that once belong to other animals…Sometimes he wants the shell of another hermit crab and then there is a fight. Sometimes the owner is pulled out. Sometimes the owner stays and wins.”
Title Imagery
Title imagery, on the other hand, occurs very early in the story. And, once again, Mae is the conveyance of the dialogue serving to make the connect between. This is, in fact, the only extended reference to mud made through dialogue in the play. She is talking to Lloyd:
“You’ll die like a pig in the mud. You’ll rot there in the mud. No one will bury you. Your skin will bloat. In the mud. Then, it will get blue like rotten meat and it will bloat even more.”
Henry Predicts the Present
Enough time has passed since the premiere of this play that Henry’s mini-monologue predicting the near-future has become the present. And it turns out Henry’s image of what awaited humanity back then has turned out to be a shockingly accurate portrait of our disposable society. Well, except for the last part there:
“A radio or any machine or appliance will be discarded as soon as it breaks down. We will make a call on the telephone and a new one will be delivered. Already we see places that use paper cups, paper plates, paper towels. Our time will not be wasted and will choose how to spend it.”
The Starfish
The imagery associated with the starfish arrives in two parts. The first involves Mae once again reading aloud from a textbook. Later, the play will actually come to an end with a callback to that text in which Mae makes the connection manifest:
“Each of the arms of the starfish has an eye in the end. These eyes do not look like our eyes. A starfish’s eyes cannot see. But they can tell if it is night or day.”
“Like the starfish, I live in the dark and my eyes see only a faint light. It is faint and yet it consumes me. I long for it. I thirst for it. I would die for it.”
