The Imagery of the Bird - “Ruth: August 16, 1983”
Ruth recalls, “Long ago in the middle of a Mining Hollow night you heard some night bird calling and you thought there, now, it’s come. The longest, darkest hour. You studied for a while, wondering if time could be made of pieces of everything like quilt, a trip around the world out of a sack full of memory and wishing.” The bird is representative of Ruth’s longings and memoirs which she craves to accomplish. Perhaps, the bird is exclusive to Ruth for it is her that she explicitly calls. Ruth may perceive the bird but she cannot physically see it, for the bird’s voice is imperceptible and unconscious.
The Imagery of Soot - “Ruth: 1926-1936”
Soot is permeating at ‘Mining Hollow.’ Ruth recalls, “Time was, come May, 1935, all we did was listen to the radio. Little Mother, who I’ll tell you about, had set that radio up in the corner of the kitchen, too close to the cook stove, so the walnut cabinet Tobias, my daddy, had toted all the way from Inez got sooty and dark, like most things in Mining Hollow, far as that goes. Got so with all that coal business, you couldn’t find much wasn’t singed or soot covered or just plain black as tar. Wind. The Front room floor. Your own skin, sometimes.” The omnipresence of soot embodies the murkiness of life at ‘Mining Hollow.’ Evidently, the soot is a representation of the unbounded pollution of the environment. Coal mining may be a foundation of sustenance but is not unconditionally eco-friendly considering the repercussion of ineradicable soot.
The Imagery of ‘Mining Hollow’ - “Andrew: August 16, 1983”
Andrew illustrates, “One hollow, mine, Mining Hollow, a place I spent so much of my thirty years. Mouth of that hollow leading to a long dirt road going back and back into the hollow itself, no way out at the end but up over the mountain, through bottom land. Long dirt road going past the Church of the Pentecost, past a trailer with a yard full of washing machines, tires, cans, bottles, stray dogs, nosing in the debris. In my childhood I though, hollow, a place to be held, a soft chest, a palm, a space at the base of a throat.” The hollowness echoes Andrew’s thirty-year old, dull presence. His emotional void is utterly convoluted to the degree that he cannot circumvent it. Accordingly, the emotional tumult is comparable to the rubble that is pervasive at ‘Mining Hollow.’ Besides, the church is connected to Andrew’s gloomy lifespan.
