Snow
Snow is a multi-layered symbol in the novel. It’s pervasive covering of the surface is reflection of the way that the details of history get covered up by the march of time. The whiteness of snow adds a layer on top of this symbolism by in turn being a reflection of the way that white society has covered up the details of their treatment of blacks throughout history.
Old Jack
Old Jack prefaces much of what he says with a recurring line of dialogue that is of great symbolic depth: “You want a story?” Jack represents the oral storytelling tradition of passing along the “secret history” of blacks that don’t usually make into the official account of documented history.
Fire
Fire—or more specifically the ability to make fire—is the book’s ultimate symbol of empowerment and humanity. Without the ability to make fire, human begins exist at the same level of animals, dependent upon the forces of nature for everything. With the ability to make fire, humans can warm themselves when it is cold, protect themselves against sickness by cooking their food, defend themselves against enemies and—importantly—destroy what you have so that no one can take it from you.
Hunting Deer
The narrator’s accounts of hunting deer are steeped in the description of the process of tracking rather than shooting or killing. A great deal of space is devoted to the intricacies of tracking deer, focusing on the concept of intuition gathered from listening to the wind, choosing a direction to go after the hoof prints in the snow disappear, registering the scents subliminally and noting “invisible” bends in leaves. The narrator’s recollections of tracking deer through instinctive reasoning will become the symbolic incarnation of tracking slaves in the narrative taking place in the past and tracking down historical truth in the narrative of the future.
Slave Feet
The feet of slaves come to symbolize the concept of economic subversion. Or, perhaps more accurately, subversive economics. This is the political activism equivalent of the famous dictum from the Watergate investigation: follow the money. The literal meaning of slave feet is simply expressed in the text: ”a slave in the Upper South represented a tremendous investment, but his value was only potential. Steal him, and the potential was never realized.” The symbolic meaning of slave is thus extrapolated: if you want to change an immoral political system, you don’t attack the morality from without, you undermine the economic system supporting it from within such as exploiting the fact that the main capital investment of a slave system comes with feet that can be used to displace it.
