Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Ever had a crazy dream you just knew meant something?
We all dream according to our own personal symbolism, and Deborah is no exception. But she takes one particular dream very seriously.
Deborah has a tumor removed from her urethra when she is fine, but after the operation, she still doesn't believe it's gone. Why not? Because she can still feel pain. She's pretty mad about that, actually because the doctors lied to her and told her she would feel no pain. Five-year-olds don't like that kind of lie. Nobody likes that kind of lie.
Anyway, Deborah has a dream about a flowerpot "whose blossom seemed to be her own ruined strength" (6.6). A flower is often a symbol for a woman's private parts. (Ever see a Georgia O'Keeffe painting?) The tumor was in Deborah's urethra, which is an awful place to be operated on, especially as a little girl. It's her private place, and now she feels like it's ruined.
Long afterward, Deborah holds on to the idea that the tumor is still there, and she still feels phantom pain from it whenever she's upset. She never forgives this first horrible lie the world told her, and she feels that something is now broken inside of her in the very place that should make her a woman.
But that's not all. Deborah later recounts to Dr. Fried that before the operation, she had another flowerpot dream. In it, there was a white room with an open window through which she saw a blue sky and quickly moving clouds. Then everything went dark and stormy, and a stone came out of nowhere, smashed the flowerpot, and broke the geranium that grew in it.
The Yri god Lactamaeon tells Deborah this is a sign of hopelessness to come in the future (8.11).
Again, there's this idea that the flower is her female parts, and the world is breaking them and hurting and changing her forever.
Deborah brings up the dream one more time. Yr has told her that Dr. Fried is deceiving her in some way, and she once again feels like the flowerpot is being hit with the stone. She's bracing for betrayal (16.96). None of it is true, of course, but that's how she feels.
That's the ultimate significance of the flowerpot—that feeling of betrayal. At one point, she was a strong, intact little girl, and then the world broke her and lied to her. Ever since then, she's been struggling to face obstacles and lonely feelings as a shattered person.
Every time Deborah feels lied to or betrayed from this point on—especially by someone she starts to care about—well, it's broken flowerpot time again.