The Sojourner (Symbol)
The Sojourner simultaneously represents the power and the anger of African Americans who are subjected to slavery and discrimination. Through her suffering, Louvinie gives an ordinary magnolia tree extraordinary powers; by burying her tongue beneath the tree, Louvinie causes it to grow until it’s the largest in the country. To the students at Saxon College, it’s a symbol of power and strength. Eventually, however, the students burn down the tree after the president of the college refuses to allow them to hold a service for the Wild Child in the chapel. Racism prevents these students from harnessing the power of the tree by making them too angry to recognize its power and beauty.
The Sacred Serpent (Symbol)
The Sacred Serpent is a symbol of history and spirituality that plays an important role in Meridian’s childhood. Like the experience of people of African heritage in the United States, Native Americans have also been subjected to oppression, murder, and unfair treatment at the hands of the government. Meridian’s father feels a deep, profound connection to Native Americans that likely stems from his own experiences of oppression in America. However, the Sacred Serpent is not a source of misery but rather of spirituality; Meridian, her father, and her great-grandmother Feather Mae all experience transcendence in the coil of the Serpent’s tail. The burial mound represents the power of the Native Americans that stems from their culture, despite many attempts by outsiders to diminish that culture.
Tommy Odd's stump (Symbol)
Tommy Odd’s injury is symbolic of the racist violence inflicted upon blacks by whites in the South during this time period. Newspaper accounts originally downplay his injury, diminishing the hate of the senseless crime. Truman is shocked to discover that his friend has lost his entire forearm. Tommy Odd’s stump becomes a symbol of hate and a source of repulsion for his former friend, Truman. Lynne, too, seems to view Tommy’s stump as a symbol of her guilt and of violence. When she forgives Tommy for raping her, she kisses his stump to reflect her feelings of responsibility for his injury.
The drowned child and the pool (Symbol)
The “pool” is a trench behind Meridian’s street in Chicokema that sometimes overflows with reservoir water, knocking over and drowning small children. The white city officials not only constructed the reservoir in an area that would cause runoff to lead to black neighborhoods, but they also refuse to do anything to fix the situation. Meridian carries the bloated body of a child who drowned and remained in the water for two days to a town meeting. The rotting corpse serves as a particularly stark and powerful symbol of the institutional injustice that black people face and its often deadly results. The pool is later covered up, which is a victory for black voters.
Meridian's cap (Symbol)
Meridian wears a railroad worker’s cap while in Chicokema to cover up her bald head; she has lost her hair as a result of her long illness. The cap symbolizes her strength because she uses it to maintain a strong appearance—from the outside, no one can tell that Meridian has lost her hair. Meridian has always been able to disguise her painful illness and even to work through it, an ability that she thinks is inherited from her enslaved ancestors. The cap also makes Meridian distinctive: she is known throughout the town as “the woman with the cap,” symbolic of how she has often been individualistic throughout her life, with a strong sense of self. In addition, the railroad imagery that the cap evokes is symbolic of how Meridian is truly the conductor of the civil rights movement in Chicokema.
