There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it.

Question

There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle. One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. It was covered with a film of Paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it.

Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, “It’s not mine.”

“It is,” I said. “And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it.”

What symbol is described in this excerpt, and what does it represent?

Answer 1

The symbol described in this excerpt is the casket. It represents death and the cruel treatment that the narrator, the speaker, has shown towards Doodle.

Answer 2

The symbol described in this excerpt is the casket in the barn loft. The casket represents death or mortality. It is a physical manifestation of the brother's cruel treatment towards Doodle and their belief in his impending death. By forcing Doodle to confront the casket and touch it, the brother is symbolically confronting Doodle with the idea of his own mortality and the fragility of his life.

Answer 3

The symbol described in this excerpt is the casket in the barn loft. It represents the cruel and heartless nature of the narrator towards his brother, Doodle. The casket serves as a physical representation of death and the narrator's belief that Doodle would not survive his disabilities. It symbolizes the narrator's own fear and insecurity about having a disabled sibling, as well as his attempts to push Doodle towards his supposed fate of death. It reflects the narrator's lack of empathy and understanding towards Doodle's limitations and his desire to control him.