War

The idea of War has been portrayed successfully throughout the novel by using many different symbols. When Kingshaw first arrives, Hooper has set out the toy soldiers to block Kingshaw’s path. The sense of power, controlling all the soldiers has brought Hooper power, as if he is the commando, trying to take down their enemies, the intruders.

The sense of war also being reminded by the name of the house “Warings”; a specifically chosen name by Hill. Hooper, with the idea of watching his enemy, without being spotted like a scout in the military, the one who watches and gather information. “When they arrived by car, he locked his door. But he watches them, tilting the mirror so that he could look down into the drive without being seen himself.” This is a way in military, where they can keep track of the enemy without being spotted or being fired at, a really useful way to follow someone, which was resembled through Hooper in this novel.

Another technique that is used in the military, has been referred by “The boy, Charles Kingshaw, was glancing up, seeing the sudden flash of the mirror”. By using a mirror, a flash light or a source of light, you can communicate with others. For a flash light or a mirror, you can reflect the light rapidly towards the person you wanted to communicate. In this, Hooper used it to get Charles attention and throw down a note with a warning that terrified Kingshaw: “I DON’T WANT YOU TO COME HERE”.

The Moths

The moth is not a beautiful creature like a butterfly even though they are related. A moth is grey and dull, not colorful like a butterfly.

Edmund is extremely fascinated by them and returned to the red room by himself. As he takes the biggest one, the “Death’s Head Hawk Moth”, it disintegrated, collapsed into his hand. The image of the moth, could be linked to Kingshaw after he arrives at the Warings. The idea of being captured, under Hooper’s control. The moment that the moth collapses in his hands, Hooper felt a sense of power, the strength to control others.

Also, the death moths in glass cases could also resembles the power that Hooper wanted. The idea of capturing the moths, kill them and then put them in glass cases for display. From the point of view of his grandfather, the moths have a sense of achievement for the first Joseph Hooper, but it seems that only he cares. These dead, grey and lifeless moths now remind others of the first Joseph Hooper for the fact that he is almost dead, and his son, declined his legacy, only interested in the house himself.

The Crow

The crow is the symbol of evil, by the blackness of its feather, and the fierce eyes has been successfully described in chapter 3, page 40 to 43.

The crow is a symbol for Hooper, the one who watches Kingshaw, just like the crow. “Enormous, ragged black wings” and “its head, shining black” fully describe the crow as black as the black hole. The crow seems like it is going to consume, take in Kingshaw, and destroy him like what Hooper is trying to do. This symbol may portray the fact that Kingshaw is always being watched by Hooper and can’t escape.

As the crow is showing actions of attacking Kingshaw, he starts to run away. The faster Kingshaw tries runs, the faster the crow will chase, and this showed another thing in common with Hooper, they never leave Kingshaw alone. Even thought he had beaten up by the crow, he still “be able to get up”. That proves that he is a positive person, never gives up no matter what Hooper does to him. 

By the fact that the crow landed on the middle of his back, clinging its claw on the back of Kingshaw portrays the grasp of Hooper, trapped Kingshaw in. As he "cannot move", the fact that he lets the crow standing on his back and not doing anything about it is like when Hooper keeps on taunting him, but he doesn't know how to react with it, therefore took no action.

The Hang Wood Forest

The Hang Wood Forest is the symbol which represents the only place that is not under the dominance of Hooper, where he is powerless, the place where Kingshaw was the one who isn't under any fear. The events happened in this forest also tells us that Kingshaw is a nice, friendly kid, unlike Hooper.

When Charles decides to run away, Hooper followed into the Hang Wood, as shown in chapter 6, from page 89 to 100. As Kingshaw reaches a dense, dark area he hears a sound and his mood changes in an instant. Notice that at this point atmosphere of the surroundings seems to change. It becomes quiet, dark and still, reflecting the change of mood. At this point Hooper appears. The appearance of Hooper made Kingshaw feel defeated and powerless, which Hill used the  word “froze” to describe the feelings of Kingshaw, who was lost by the appearance of Hooper and doesn’t know what to do.

On chapter 7, from page 103 to 107, Hooper has shown his weakness to Kingshaw, which was the thunder roaring. But Kingshaw, instead of teasing and make fun of Hooper, he helped by driving Hooper’s thoughts to something else other than the thunder, which was the “stream” he was talking about. By saying he is thirsty, he persuaded Hooper to follow him. Kingshaw as a nice person naturally, “forgotten the sort of person Hooper was” and followed him.

The Red Room

Susan Hill, by using the Red Room, has brought the sense of blood lust, anger, fierceness of Hooper towards Kingshaw. Because Hooper is seeing Kingshaw as an ‘intruder’, therefore he is trying as hard as he can to get rid of Kingshaw, no matter what it takes.

The sense of dead is all over the red room. The symbols are the dead moths, the books that no one ever reads, and the dead animals that his grandfather collected. Also, Hill also explores the darkness of Warings. She created a very morbid, the sense of sickness by saying “The old man had breathed noisily, and dribbled a little, and never woken. The sick room smelled sour”. That quote was used to describe the grandfather, the one who created and made use of the red room. By using the image of him dying, Hill has showed the sense of collapsing of the relationship between the people that lives in the Warings.

The red room was originally used for a library, but then “nobody ever read, here. The first Joseph Hooper had not even done so.” This shows that the Hooper is a family full of fake things, just to show off. The library was full of famous novels; hence trying to look like they are smart and knowledgeable, but the truth is they are not. They probably don’t even know what the novels in their library are about. The red room resembles the place where the Hooper shows off their fake power, knowledge, and the money, which they clearly didn’t have that plenty to be proud of.