Symbol: The Teacup
The teacup Beauty steals from the Wileys is an old cup bearing the image of a faded Queen Elizabeth. This teacup is a symbol of colonial power in South Africa—a power that is now officially gone, though its vestiges remain. The image of the Queen is only a ghost of itself, and the teacup is out of fashion and forgotten even by Patricia. Beauty, a black South African, takes this cup as her own, symbolically making a small gesture of claiming a place for herself.
Symbol: The Dogs
The dogs in the text are a symbol of apartheid, white control, and fear. The dogs were used to keep "undesirable" people out and to protect white South Africans and their wealth and property during apartheid. The dogs in The Dream House surround Patricia and do Richard's bidding; they are seen by the black characters are menacing and monstrous. Grace's death by one of the dogs, set loose by Richard, is an apposite example of how these dogs were used to enforce white power and supremacy. In the end, the euthanization of the dogs when Patricia and Richard leave Dwaleni shows the end of an era, the death of the apartheid system.
Symbol: Dwaleni
The farmhouse is a symbol of white power and privilege during apartheid. It is protected and sits above the farm (the representation of South Africa). As the farm is altered and modernized by Looksmart and his development company, it is "opened up" and light is allowed into it; this is a representation of the dismantling of the apartheid structure and its concomitant of white power in South Africa.
Symbol: Looksmart's Clay Figures
Looksmart makes clay figures for Patricia, and these clay figures become a symbol of Looksmart's desire to always please Patricia; they also become an indication to Patricia that Looksmart loves her and wants her to be happy. The fact that these figures are clay is important in the symbolization, as clay is malleable; this suggests that Looksmart consciously or unconsciously "molded" himself into what Patricia wanted him to be.
Symbol: The Mist
The mist that is often mentioned in the novel is a symbol of Dwaleni's—and its residents'–isolation, secrecy, and seclusion from the real world. It separates and obscures the farm, adding a mysterious aura that reflects the secrets and the confusion that characterizes life on the farm for decades. When Patricia and Richard leave Dwaleni, the rain is gone, the mist has cleared, and the sky is blue—all symbols of a new day dawning, of buried secrets released into the light.
