The lamp is a symbol throughout the story of the “faith or dream with which to make the dust and poverty less real” (9). Ross does not necessarily pass judgement on the nature of such faith or dreams, never defining them as objectively good or bad. Rather, the lamp, like the main characters’ circumstances, is simply part of what is.

Because Ellen does not possess such faith or dreams, and Paul does, the lamp serves to highlight the depth of the conflict between Paul and Ellen. At times, it highlights the starkness of their features: “[t]he lamp between them threw strong lights and shadows on their faces” (4). The lamp is also associated with the sun, a far brighter sort of light. As Ellen dares to open the door, just to look outside, “for a moment through the tattered clouds the sun raced like a wizened orange” (1). Ellen observes that the sun “shed a soft, diffused light, dim and yellow as if it were the light from the lamp reaching out through the open door” (1). She then quickly closes the door. This type of light is not for Ellen, not something that touches her.