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The “piercing” sunset that the characters experience together in the first scene seems to foreshadow the end of something. Were the story to begin with a sunrise, it would suggest that the story presages a new beginning, a rebirth, or a reintroduction. For the characters to watch the sun drop behind the mountains, turning the evening into night as they introduce themselves cannot help but augur unhappiness, if not outright tragedy. The darkness seems to follow Shiftlet, and the darkness is repeated at the end of the story, after the boy has leapt from the car. A rainstorm begins, with “guffawing” thunder and “fantastic” raindrops. The darkness that Shiftlet brought with him to the Crater plantation is accompanying him as they drive on toward Mobile, indicating that he will continue to do damage to those he encounters.

Earlier, Shiftlet’s “sharp pale gaze” takes in everything in the yard when he arrives, landing on the back of the car in the garage. One of the very first things he says, before introducing himself to the Craters, is to ask about the car. This immediate evidence of his preoccupation indicates that the car is important to him, arguably more important than the relationship he will cultivate with the Craters. Throughout the story, then, all of his subsequent actions are in service of him getting his hands on the car and getting it work as a means to escape whatever it is he seems to be running from.

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