Question

Choose the passage that best illustrates the allegory of the Gray Man as a symbol of death.
A. "What a chilling moment when the gray man softly opened the door of a farmhouse kitchen, and seated himself like a skeleton at the feast of walnuts and roasted apples beside the glowing fire!"
B. "His clothes were somewhat peculiar, as if they had been made in another country, yet they suited the chilly weather, being homespun of undyed wools, just the color of his hair, and only a little darker than his face or hands."
C. "They wondered who he was; one recalled some recent advertisement of an escaped criminal, and another the appearance of a native of the town who was supposed to be long ago lost at sea, but one surmiser knew as little as the next."
D. "An instinctive curiosity and alarm possessed the country men and women for a while, but soon faded out and disappeared."


"The Gray Man." Sarah Orne Jewett, 1886.

Answer 1

I think a. but I can also give you some material that might help

Answer 2

The passage that best illustrates the allegory of the Gray Man as a symbol of death is A:

"What a chilling moment when the gray man softly opened the door of a farmhouse kitchen, and seated himself like a skeleton at the feast of walnuts and roasted apples beside the glowing fire!"

The sensation these words create make the allegory perfect for describing the arrival of death, "a chilling moment" , a man that softly opens the door and seats himself "like a skeleton". The power of this image is the same as the power of the death coming close, unexpected, in a life full of warmness.