Blue color (symbol)
Blue color can be traces within the entire story, at every period of granny’s life. First it symbolizes neatness granny appreciates so much, when a young woman she kept everything in order, and this order comes somehow in blue image. When lighting the lamps at night she and her children “watched the flame rise and settle in a blue curve”, and this blue symbolizes the moment and granny’s comprehension that her children have grown up. Next blue is recalled when granny looks at the picture of her husband, the photographer had depicted “John’s eyes very black when they should have been blue”, and she refuses to accept it was her husband. Here comes at some level her denial of John being a person she was supposed to be with. And finally blue color is a color of granny’s own mind when she dies. When being on her deathbed she sees blue color coming out of her which she is herself. Thus, blue symbolizes important things at every stage of granny’s life.
Tomorrow (Motif)
Motif of tomorrow can be traced as a granny’s denial to die. She still thinks of stuff being done, things arranged tomorrow. For her tomorrow is when everything is clear and accomplished. She has been preparing for death since she was 60, and now when she is already 80 she still thinks of tomorrow as of a time far away, she refuses to accept it might not come to her.
Granny’s surname (Symbol)
The surname of the main character is not accidental, as everything in the story. Weatherall can be divided into two words: weather & all. One of the meanings of the word “weather” id to “withstand a difficulty or danger” and from the context we see that granny had gone through a lot of different troubles, but nevertheless she had managed to stand, meaning she had weathered it all. The surname symbolizes all the hardships this woman had and stood through in her life.
