The house behind the cedars
The title of the novel derives from its central symbol: the house “shut off from the street by a row of dwarf cedars.” That house is the family home of the Waldens and as the story progresses it becomes a tale of deception located in the ancestral history they attempt to keep shut off from recognition by the rest of the world.
Cinderella
After Rena/Rowena is crowned the Queen of Love and Beauty, she confesses that the whole thing is like a dream that makes her feel like “Cinderella before the clock has struck.” It is notable that she doesn’t just stop with saying she feels like the fairy tale heroine and stop there as most women would, but instead goes on to suggest center that feeling to a quite specific point in the story. That decision expands the reference into symbol: her identification effectively ends at that moment since there is not going to be a happy ending.
Pigmentation
Interestingly, in both the worlds of whites and blacks, pigmentation is symbolic of the same thing. In the black world of Jefferson Wain, Rena’s light complexion makes her a prize “possession” for the man who marries her. By contrast, in George Tryon’s white world, Rowena as a white woman is considered highly enough to love, but loving Rena as a black woman is considered debasement. Neither man fully values her based on attributes apart from the pigment of her skin.
The Tragic Mulatto
Rena Walden is an example of a symbolic literary archetype that dates back at least to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The “tragedy” of this born with a mixed racial heritage is that the tension created between being half white and half black, but fitting fully into neither black nor white society inexorably leads to a melancholy existence that typically leads to at least a temporary consideration of suicide if not the actual attempt or completion of the act. Even when suicide is not considered, more often than the story completes the tragic cycle with the character’s death.
The Good-Looking Yellow Nurse
Rowena asks George if he could still love her if she were like George’s nurse. She is referring to the fact that the nurse is what the narrator has described as “a good-looking yellow girl” which is a now outdated and offensive term applied to someone with a light complexion who was still generally identified as African-American, rather than someone actually “passing” as white. George, on the other hand, not capable of seeing any other possible connection between the two women, apparently thinks the reference is to class rather than race and immediately seems to quash her concerns. The nurse, in that single moment, becomes a symbol of all the miscommunication that contributes to the tragic racial tension in America.
