Content Warning: This section discusses racism, sexual assault, child abuse, child marriage, and violence, as they appear in the narrative.

Though Bill Cosey is a central figure in the novel, he is long dead by the time the book begins in the 1990s. Many of the novel’s plot points, such as the fight over the will, revolve around the difficulty of interpreting Cosey’s intentions and behavior. Throughout the novel, Bill Cosey’s portrait is a symbol that represents Cosey himself. Every character in the novel has different reactions to Cosey’s portrait and their difference in interpretations point to the man’s ambiguity.

For Vida Gibbons, the portrait represents Cosey as a “powerful, generous friend” when it hangs behind the reception desk where she works (44). It reminds her that Cosey is her and her family’s benefactor and that his generosity has helped establish their financially stable (though not wealthy) lifestyle. Sandler Gibbons privately disagrees with this interpretation, believing that Cosey is looking at Celestial, his mistress, with the pride of “first ownership” (44). To him, the portrait represents Cosey’s duplicity and his belief that wealth entitles him to power over others.