Daguerreotype (Symbol)
The daguerreotype of “Sam Taylor” is a symbol of the past, of Mr. Ryder captured as he was decades ago. It is him, but at the same time, it is not him anymore. It represents him as poor, uneducated, and privy to the institution of slavery's grasp. As a photograph it is indicative of a moment in time and an embodiment of memory and experience, but again, it is no longer representative of truth.
Mr. Ryder (Allegory)
Mr. Ryder is not so much an individual character as a stand-in for the mixed-race, educated, wealthy, and cultured population of post-Civil War black people. His struggle to choose between Mrs. Dixon, who represents whiteness, the future, social elevation, and turning one's back on the rest of the race, and Liza Jane, who represents blackness, the past, lower social standing, and embracing one's racial heritage, is an allegory for the entire Talented Tenth and their position caught between the “upper and nether millstone.”
