Rosebushes also appear for the first time in the narrative when a defiant Suzette urinates on them to show her rejection of Madame Derbanne’s effort to exercise complete control over her. She makes this contemptuous gesture secretly, after her enslaver mistress slaps her. Thus, the roses themselves represent the power of white people over enslaved Black people, while Suzette’s choice to damage the rose bushes represents Black resistance to the dehumanization and of enslavement.

Later in the novel, roses become a symbol of Emily’s connection to her family, as Suzette gifts her the roses. Significantly, these rosebushes are one of the few things that she takes when Joseph ejects her from Billes Landing. In this moment, they become a symbol for her broken connection to Joseph and for her sustained connection to her family. When Suzette nurtures the roses back to life, this act parallels the nurturing that Emily’s family gives her after the move.

Suzette’s white communion dress is initially a symbol of the privileges she receives through her association with Oreline. When Suzette wears the dress to her first communion, it represents the church’s recognition of her humanity. However, when Eugene rapes her, leaving blood stains, the ruined dress represents her vulnerability to sexual coercion and her inability to prevent it. After the trauma of the rape, she worries only about removing and concealing the stains, and her preoccupation that highlights the degree to which sexual coercion makes rape survivors feel shame rather than feeling anger at the men who rape them.

The moonlight chair, a rocking chair that Clement crafts for Philomene in his spare time, is initially a symbol of love as a form of resistance to enslavement and dehumanization. Because he uses labor and materials that he takes from his enslavers, making the chair becomes an act of resistance that helps Clement to assert his right to love the woman he chooses despite his enslavers’ attempts to exercise control over every aspect of his life. When the chair helps him to survive a near-drowning in the river, this scene demonstrates that he is also sustained by Philomene’s love. Even after Clement is sold away, Philomene keeps the chair. Much later in her life, when Narcisse tells her about Bet and punches her, Philomene demands that he get out of her chair. In this moment, the chair represents Philomene’s newfound freedom from his sexual coercion.