28 pages • 56 minutes read
Mildred D. TaylorThe Gold Cadillac
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Picnics and Shared Meals
Food is a central symbol of community in The Gold Cadillac and represents the shared experiences of people in the community. Toward the beginning of the novel, for example, ’lois describes how “the smell of charcoal and of barbecue” (20) are part of the community’s summer evening. Mother and the aunts prepare a feast to be packed for the trip to Mississippi, and the shared food makes clear the extended family will also share the experience of trip and the burden of protecting one another. In this and other moments, food facilitates the feeling that ’lois and her relatives and neighbors are all connected and nourish one another through that connection. In the Author’s Note, Mildred D. Taylor describes her own childhood memories of food representing community.
Having picnics and sharing meals becomes more complicated later in the novel. The picnic packed for the trip to Mississippi seems less “grand” (30) when ’lois realizes that the food has been brought because they will not be able to eat in “white only” restaurants once they reach the South. Racism limits the communal sense of the food; it cannot fully epitomize connection when Black people are explicitly excluded from eating alongside white people. The connection the food provides has a stark racial boundary.
The Gold Cadillac
The most important symbol in the novel is the gold Cadillac, which is the center of the conflict and a source of much conversation. Cadillac has long been a well-known luxury brand. Additionally, the color of the car, gold, symbolizes wealth and status. ’Lois reflects on how the gold Cadillac represents status when she first sees it, calling it “a car for rich folks” (11), and feeling proud that the “car belong[s] to [her] family” (22). To ’lois and her family (excepting her mother), the gold Cadillac symbolizes the family’s attaining the American dream.
The conflict surrounding this symbol is that white supremacy fought to keep Black Americans in poverty and under white control. As such, many white people resented Black people who attained wealth or status. Wilbert selected and paid for the car, and ’lois doesn’t “understand… why [her mother] did not like that fine Cadillac” (17-18). There is tension between Mother and Daddy about owning such a visible sign of wealth rather than saving for a nicer house. On the trip to Mississippi, the car draws unwanted attention from white police officers, who accuse Daddy of stealing the car and of being “a liar” (30). The reaction of the officers reflects the larger racist beliefs at the time, and Daddy tells ’lois later that he hopes one day they won’t have such an experience “just because of the color of our skins and […] riding in a gold Cadillac” (37). The Cadillac serves as a visible expression of ’lois and her family’s success in a society that does not want them to succeed.
The Knife
The picnic knife is a critical symbol of the way that racism affects young people. While ’lois spends much of the novel watching the interactions around her or playing, she has one particularly adult moment after the police have released her father. The family is sleeping in their car on the side of the road, hoping to drive to Mississippi safely the next morning. ’Lois cannot sleep, terrified that officers may return to take her father. She describes her choice to take out the “long, sharp knife in the picnic basket” (35) and hold it “tightly in [her] hand” (35). When she wakes up, her mother has taken the knife and her parents reassure her that she is safe when she is with them. The choice to take the knife and hold it while she sleeps reflects the deep psychological impact of the incident with the police, and ’lois feels she needs the option to resort to violence to protect her family. The knife symbolizes the trauma resulting from racism, and Mother and Daddy show that they can hold that fear for ’lois and keep her safe, rather than making her prematurely assume adult responsibilities of protecting others.
Related Titles
By Mildred D. Taylor
