In McCullers's novel, “reflections” aren’t simply physical appearances in a mirror or in a body of water; they are also impressions. Each person is a mirror, forming impressions of those around them. The motif therefore becomes a way to think about how humans understand one another and how limited their perceptions are.

When the narrative perspective shifts between characters, it can drastically alter the depiction of those characters. For example, in the perspective shift at the end of the novel, the Captain thinks about the Private and the Private thinks about the Captain. The Captain is obsessed with the Private and wants to be as close to him as possible. The Private thinks of the Captain as something of a natural phenomenon—near him but otherwise unrelated to him. The Captain notices the Private’s clothing—the way that the Private’s specific body inhabits the clothes of his soldier’s role—and the Captain feels a medley of intense emotions. The Private has no sense of this; the reflection of the Private that exists in the Captain’s mind has little to do with the actual Private.

This motif appears twice to the Captain as a kaleidoscope, first during his wild horse ride, when he finally feels true joy: “The world was a kaleidoscope, and each of the multiple visions which he saw impressed itself on his mind with burning vividness” (354).