Grey Town
The place called Grey Town is either Purgatory or hell as a state of mind. If one leaves, it is Purgatory. Either way, its defining characteristic is implied by its name. It is a place notable for its dreariness, and for its lack of color and sunshine. Understandably, the conditions of relations in living such a place for an extended period of time would be restlessness and the common condition of the populace of Grey Town is a depression-related cantankerous petulance towards everybody else. Grey Town represents a place where the light of God has been dimmed, but not extinguished.
Water
Being a Christian allegory, one might well expect to find a preponderance of water imagery. There is a Water-Giant, a waterfall, and there is a rainfall in Grey Town capable of causing tremendous physical injury. A meaningful moment alludes to the story of Jesus walking on the water when the narrator finds with tremendous effort he is actually capable of walking on the surface of a moving river, but the effort expended results in very progress. Water imagery is Christian fiction is a standard trope referencing the fundamental tenet of baptismal washing away of sins in Christian theology and all the water-related imagery in this text supports that thesis.
Light
The primary symbolic incarnation of light-related imagery is, of course, Grey Town which is constantly bathed in the fuzzy half-lift zone of twilight. Just as water is a traditional theological symbol of the presence of God in other works, so it is used for that purpose here. The light is not out in Grey Town because it does not represent Hell per se, thus it is only dim. This irritating half-way point between light and dark is contrasted with imagery of light so bright it can actually be painful. Inside the bus which transports residents from Grey Town to Heaven is a brilliant light which fills the entire vehicle. So bright is this light, in fact, that the narrator terms it “cruel.” The imagery here is suggestive that the light of understanding and acceptance of the greatness of God is not always entirely pleasant as it is capable of illuminating the worst aspects of ourselves which we might prefer to keep hidden in the shadows.
The Bus
The Artist becomes very upset to find that heaven is very democratic. Fame and distinguished accomplishment do not exist because everyone attains glory equally through the flow from its source in God. This revelation (plus the fact that back on earth his work has already gone out of style and been forgotten) drive him completely mental. The bus which transports those from Grey Town to heaven is the most significant example of imagery which supports this notion of a democratic heaven. Although the bus itself is described as a wonderful, “heraldically colored” vehicle that makes it stand out as special, it is still just a bus. The most democratic sort of motorized conveyance ever built and thus an ideal symbol to underscore the prevalent imagery constructing the foundational concept that everything the individual pursues out of self-interest during life evaporates into meaningless in the afterlife.
