The Lonely Crow and the Overgrown Garden
This imagery of the crow reveals a keen eye for detail, denoting transformation and the layering of hidden aspects: "A crow’s coat was black from a distance but if you got near enough and the light caught the plumage right you could see that the feathers were a deep navy folded through with tints of iridescence, like petrol in water. It was the way the feathers were layered, tight and overlapping as tiles of slate, that multiplied the navy into blackness." The bird's presence amid the neglected garden, now overtaken by nettles and dock leaves, reflects the passage of time and abandonment. Both the crow and the garden are markers of decay, loss, and the hidden complexities of the characters’ emotions. The attention to the crow’s layered feathers and iridescence mirrors how Barrett’s characters conceal layers of trauma and identity beneath their surface-level personas.
The Ghostly Shower
The narrator asserts, "Though he and the kid had swept up all the glass and debris from the floor and put back up the shower rod, the bathroom was still in bad shape. The cabinet above the sink was an emptied-out cavity, its metal frame mirrorless and buckled, framing nothing." This passage offers an eerie sense of emptiness and ruin. The mirrorless cabinet indicates a loss of clarity or the inability of the characters to confront themselves and their situation. Additionally, the term "emptied-out cavity" further amplifies the abandoned feeling, as though the physical space reflects the internal void within the characters. The broken shower rod and "debris" allude to a scene of previous violence or disorder, which hints at unresolved conflicts in the background of the story.
Eternal Night of the Woods
The following imagery captures a scene where Nicky observes the merging of the domesticated world with the untamed natural environment: "From what Nicky could see there was no wall or fence, no clear boundary to demarcate the end of the property. The level and ordered garden transitioned into a rising slope of brush and tangled briars and then into the boles of the trees that multiplied out into the vast depths of the woods." The lack of a boundary between the garden and the woods denotes an encroachment of the chaotic and unknown upon the characters’ orderly lives. Moreover, the "tangled briars" and the "vast depths" of the woods conjure an image of overwhelming and menacing forces. Thus, the woods represent the unspoken fears or traumas that lie just beyond the surface of everyday life.
The Frigid Eternity of the Stars
The narrator says, "He sniffed and wiped at his wet eyes with the heels of his palms and stared hard into the black of the sky until he could make out again the radiant debris of the stars." This is an existential moment as the character gazes into the sky. The description invokes feelings of loneliness and the overwhelming scale of the universe. Furthermore, the juxtaposition with the stars denotes that even beauty and light in the universe are remnants of some unknowable collapse. Therefore, the coldness of the sky illustrates the emotional detachment and desolation felt by the character.
