Read the passage below:
"The wind off the estuary brought the scent of brine and wet slate, rattling the loose sashes of the attic room where Clara worked. On the table lay her grandfather’s writing desk, its mahogany surface scarred by ink and time. Yet it was the small, green glass paperweight—containing a single, trapped bubble of air—that drew her gaze. It sat atop her unfinished translations, holding down the fluttering pages with a cold, heavy insistence. She had tried to remove it, to let the draft carry the papers where it would, but each time her hand hesitated. The bubble inside the glass was perfectly spherical, suspended in a permanent state of arrest, surrounded by a thick, green wall that distorted the light from the window. When the afternoon sun hit the table, the paperweight cast a pale, distorted shadow across the floor, resembling a pool of stagnant water. Clara touched the glass; it was always colder than the surrounding air. In the quiet hours of the dusk, when the ink dried on her pen, the green glass seemed to absorb the room’s meager warmth, leaving her fingers numb and her mind anchored to the unyielding weight of what could never be written."
In the context of the passage, the green glass paperweight functions primarily to symbolize which of the following?
- Athe literal necessity of securing the papers against the wind rattling the attic windows
- Bthe hostile and desolate coastal setting that physically threatens Clara's household
- Cthe author’s philosophical commentary on the inherent futility of translation and literary scholarship
- Clara’s internal state of confinement and the creative paralysis that stalls her workAnswer
- EClara's simple preference for preserving her grandfather's memory over finishing her own projects