Color (Visual Imagery)
Throughout the novel, descriptions incorporate color and colors as symbols. Snow White's hair is black and her skin is white. The dwarves hang a new red shower curtain in the shower when they try to lure Snow White back to the shower. Paul surrenders a green-and-gold armband when he returns from the monastery, a possible reference to the colors on a priest's robes.
Pajamas (Visual Imagery)
The dwarves and Snow White all strip off their pajamas together, while at another point, the dwarves try to force Bill to take his pajamas off. The pajamas are a reminder of intimacy and vulnerability. Pajamas are worn to bed and in domestic settings; they remind the reader that the dwarves and Snow White live together in a domestic apartment. It also another one of the images within the novel that accentuates the "banal" setting of Barthelme's retelling. The princess does not wear a gown. Instead, she is dressed in regular pajamas, which frames her as a quotidian woman.
The hair (Visual Imagery)
The hair is both a symbol and a prevalent visual image throughout the novel. It is black and dark. As the novel progresses, Snow White uses it as a tool to attract men and hangs it out of her window, which also creates a visual allusion (reference) to another fairytale—Rapunzel. The hair also grows, thus marking the passage of time within the novel. The hair distinguishes the visual presence of Snow White versus the dwarves, since the dwarves' physical attributes are rarely described, while Snow White is described and defined by her hair.
The girls (Visual Image)
The "girls" appear in several places. They are described through the colors they are wearing, the way they arrange their hair, their body shapes, and the actions they partake in. They are always defined by their physical appearance, which the narrator carefully describes—referring, for example, to the girls' "sweet neck[s]" (160). The girls serve as a visual taunt to the dwarves, a reminder of the female body and sexuality.
