Light/Darkness- Founder's Death

Light is generally accepted to mean what is right, true and good and is often linked to hope as it is here. When the founder dies, the community's light dies and is snuffed out by the proximity of death. The old ways of slavery, their darkness, threaten to return. The speaker, Barbee, relates that, "They smelt that old obscene stink of darkness, that old slavery smell, worse than the rank halitosis of hoary death. Their sweet light enclosed in a black-draped coffin, their majestic sun snatched behind a cloud" (131). The darkness of death was threatening to cover their light, their hope, their goodness and reveal more darkness through returned slavery. "Black" is symbolic for darkness and is closing in on their happiness and hope that is "their sweet light". The "majestic sun", their wisdom, guide, source of energy and enthusiasm, is being smothered "behind a cloud", another sign of darkness. This symbolic imagery helps to relay their deep sense of loss and hopelessness associated with the founder's death. They are restored, though, by the incredible leadership and initiative of Dr. Bledsoe, the current school president.