Korl, as we are told, is the “refuse from the ore” (24)at the iron mill where Hugh Wolfe and Deborah work. It is a malleable material, out of which Wolfe makes his sculptures in his spare time: sculptures that often depict the inarticulate anguish of his life. Both literally and thematically, then, Wolfe is using his life at the mill as artistic material. That he uses korl for sculpting shows his desperation, but also his resourcefulness.

The visiting men at the mill are impressed by Wolfe’s sculpture, but nonplused by it at the same time, perhaps because it looks so unlike the sorts of sculptures that they are used to seeing. One man describes it as having a “flesh tint” (32), which adds to the sculpture’s jarring effect; in all ways, the sculpture appears to them naked. Korl is an unlikely material for Wolfe to use, as Wolfe himself is an unlikely artist. Yet out of its unlikeliness also comes its directness and its power.

In the story’s opening, the narrator describes the fogginess and smokiness of her town. The smokiness comes in part from the fumes that emanate from the iron mill, which is the town’s central industry.