Read the following passage:
*In the late afternoons, Julian stood by the salt-bleached weir, watching the river-water channel through the narrow sluice. The village elders spoke of the weir as a sentinel, but to Julian, it was a sieve that caught only the heavy, rot-blackened branches while letting the clear silt wash down to the bay. Each day he cleared the accumulated debris, stacking the slick wood into neat, pyramidal piles that never dried. Across the bank, his sister Eleanor worked the small hand-press, its rhythmic, heavy thudding marking the hours. She did not look at the river, nor did she look at the piles of wood. Her hands were permanently stained with the blue indigo ink of the ledger, a pigment so stubborn that even the harsh lye soap could only fade it to the color of a bruised sky. As the twilight deepened, the fog rolled in from the estuary, blurring the line between the dark water and the solid earth, until Julian could no longer tell if he was standing on the bank or floating out toward the open sea.*
Which of the following best describes the symbolic function of the indigo ink that stains Eleanor's hands?
- AIt serves as a literal illustration of the crude manufacturing materials available in the historical period.
- BIt acts as a vehicle for the author's direct political critique of the village's exploitative economic structure.
- It represents the indelible and inescapable imprint of her daily labor on her identity.Answer
- DIt functions as a narrative catalyst that prompts her to wash her hands repeatedly with lye soap.
- EIt utilizes the universal archetype of the color blue to signal Eleanor's spiritual purity and inner peace.