The Cemetery
The protagonist asserts, "The plastic of the flowers had turned grey, every part of them, though they must have once been luridly coloured like those I could see sticking up from the little metal vases at other headstones: ragged synthetic petals in puce and maroon and white with dark green stems, angled here and there with artificial nodules and leaves." This imagery focuses on the decaying state of synthetic flowers at the graveside. The description of once-vivid colors emphasizes the contrast between the vitality that artificial flowers might have once imitated and their current decrepitude. Therefore, it symbolizes the passage of time and forgotten memories.
Driving Through the Plains
In the following passage, the reader is transported into a tactile landscape: "The road coiled up a steep hill, entering a tunnel of thick bush – my car struggled on the wet bitumen – and then on the other side it opened out into these endless, shallow, angular plains, bare as rubbed suede." The word "endless" amplifies this vastness creating a desolate atmosphere. Furthermore, the natural world here is not welcoming but stripped and skeletal, as if life has been scoured away. The imagery paints an existential void that echoes the internal emotional barrenness of the characters.
The High Stony Plains
The narrator says, "Driving across the surface of the high stony plains on my way here, I found the landscape’s desolation beautiful. The sweeping, broad structure of this land gently shifts from one plane into another, each sloping yet almost flat, like a shoulder blade." Wood creates a paradoxical image of beauty in desolation. The comparison of the land to a "shoulder blade" imbues the description with physicality. This anatomical metaphor gives the landscape a sense of organic life. The juxtaposition of beauty with bleakness indicates the theme of finding solace in spaces that reflect emotional and spiritual desolation.
Footprints in Frost
"Crossing the grass I made a clean track of footprints, deep green on the white spread of the lawn. It returned me to my childhood, to the sense of secret authority, imprinting one’s presence into a place with those clear, sharp prints." The "clean track" represents an assertion of existence—especially in the context of the protagonist's reflection on her past and identity. This imagery is laden with nostalgia, emphasizing a yearning for control or significance in a life filled with uncertainty. The sensory detail of the footprints breaking the frost reinforces the ephemeral nature of existence.
