Tree - "Cora Unashamed"
Langston Hughes parallels Cora to a solid tree: “Cora was like a tree -- once rooted, she stood, in spite of storms and strife, wind, and rocks, in the earth.” The emblematic tree renders Cora a sturdy individual who has a repugnance for shifting occupations frequently. Cora unveils pliability of an adept deep-rooted tree that cannot be deracinated by prejudice and dehumanization.
Teeth - “Cora Unashamed”
Langston Hughes perceives: “There was something about the teeth in the trap of economic circumstance that kept her in their power practically all her life -- in the Studevant kitchen, cooking; in the Studevant parlor, sweeping; in the Studevant backyard, hanging clothes.” The emblematic teeth are comparable to the methodical apparatuses that capitalists such as Studevants engage to broaden inequity between them and the bourgeois. Subsequently, the bourgeois (such as Cora) are enduringly caged to avail low-cost labour.
Dog - “Passing”
Jack acknowledges, “I felt like a dog, passing you downtown last night and not speaking to you.” The allegorical dog denotes instinctive insignificance. The outlooks is innate because Jack’s’ conscious is beyond the shallowness that he pageants when he calculatedly discounts his mother. The conscious cannot be blinded by the fabricated illusions that Jack’s white skin personifies.
Suspect-proof - “Passing”
Jack notes, “I guess in looks I’m sort of suspect-proof anyway.” The “suspect-proof” standing designates his enthralling whiteness which does intimate his black associations. Undoubtedly, white-skin genes are heritable since they can be tracked to his white father.
