Dirt appears many times in this story, so I this it is an important symbol. Here are several moments including "dirt".
1. “…jabbing
the dirt with a spade as she bordered the house with nasturtium seeds.”
This is the first time “dirt”
appears in the story. At the very beginning, the woman only throws away the
seven potatoes, and they come back. But this time, those potatoes even survive
the oven and the tires and the road, and come back. The woman is quite angry
and tries to ignore them. Jabbing the dirt is what the woman do the rest of the
day.
2. “…pushing
every speck of dirt out the door until the floor rang smooth.”
The woman has already tried many
ways to get rid of these potatoes. She has some beer and comes back home,
slicing all seven potatoes and throws them away. She eats the left piece of
potato, and pushing dirt out the door the rest of evening. This moment is a
little bit similar to the first moment. It seems that the woman has a morbid
fear of getting dirty.
3. “…and
the taste in her mouth felt like the kind of stale dirt that has lost its
ability to grow anything.”
After seeing her neighbor with
suitor and many flowers, the woman shivers. The woman feels so hungry that she decides
to eat the potato. The potato is larger than an average one, and it has an
abstract shape. She hates potatoes, and the taste is like stale dirt. But she
still struggles to eat.
4. “…she
pushed them out the front door to the side of the house where there was a strip
of dirt that the neighbor could not see.”
“He looked up at her with wondering
eyes and she filled the hole with dirt over him.”
“…as she shoved more dirt over
his grayish body.”
When her neighbor asks for borrowing the woman’s
bathroom, she refuses because four potatoes are hidden there. After that, the
woman yells to potatoes to get away. Then she pushes them out to a strip of
dirt where she will bury them soon. The following two moments happen when the
woman is burying four potatoes. She shoves dirt over potatoes, and fills the
hole with dirt.
5. “…she
went outside to the strip of dirt.”
Life without potatoes is lonely. The
woman does everything alone again. But now, she begins to miss the days with
potatoes. The next morning, she checks the strip of dirt where potatoes are buried.
There is no movement, and she sets a rock at each site.
6. “He
sat right when the shovel touched his arm and dirt fell from his face and legs.”
“The layers of dirt became them.”
The woman meets her neighbor and says there is no
broken bathroom; in addition, she has four potato children. Then, she digs up
four potatoes. When she shoves, she touches dirt. When the potatoes are dug
out, dirt become them.
