White Angel

Both the story’s title and one of its key symbols, the white angel is a statue in the cemetery that borders the Morrows’ house: “A single stone angel, small-breasted and determined, rose amid the more conservative markers close to our house” (1). The description of the statue as “determined” suggests the statue’s importance and enhances its connection to another determined character, Carlton. She is something exceptional among the otherwise “conservative” markers of the cemetery—she is thus like Carlton, a determined and original presence within a more conservative context.

The statue appears three times in the story, first as a standout symbol of determination and flight within a sea of conservative gravestones. She next appears when Bobby imagines going out to stand where Carlton stood that fateful night: “The moon will be full. I will hang out just as Carlton must have, hypnotized by the silver light on the stones, the white angel raising her arms across the river” (13). Just as with the word “determined,” Bobby’s description of how the angel raises her arms suggests she is alive and has intentions. Her final appearance follows Carlton’s death, when Bobby thinks of his grave in the cemetery behind the house as a “small gray finger” that sits “within sight of the angel’s blank white eyes” (14).