Turner’s white shirts that he wears in the book’s early chapters represent his role as a minister’s son and the internal conflict that role creates. The clothes he wears lead Lizzie to make assumptions about him, just as she makes assumptions about the “frock coats” who visit Malaga in Chapter 2. She calls his white shirt “fit for glory” (44), implying that Turner’s manners are somewhat pretentious and inhuman. Turner is uncomfortable when he is wearing the shirts, which soak up his sweat since they are full of laundering starch (26) and are difficult to keep clean, as Turner finds after his fistfight with Willis in Chapter 2. As the story progresses, Turner’s parents stop making him wear the uncomfortable and impractical shirts, which signals their acceptance of their son.

The white shirts that Turner is forced wear also symbolize the moral degradation that the Buckminsters encounter upon moving to Phippsburg. The family begins by dressing their son in the starched shirts, representing the family as upstanding and honorable to the community. As Turner continues to stand up to the prejudices and racism he sees in the townspeople, the shirts become soiled with sweat, blood, and dirt. The Buckminsters, too, become soiled with their own sweat, blood, and dirt:

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