American Pastoral Appearances Quotes

The contrast between the image of beauty queen and that of a woman working all day with cattle seems very important to Dawn. But, her image of herself working with cattle is tied with her image of herself as Merry's mother, an image she has to put out of her head if she can.

Lou is talking about the infamous painting by Bill Orcutt that Dawn puts on the wall to replace a portrait of Merry. At least from the Swede's point of view, Orcutt's painting is a painting of "nothing." Symbolically, Merry is being replaced by something insubstantial or unfinished.

Since nothing to do with Rita makes any sense, and since her presence casts doubt on Merry's story, it would be so easy for the Swede if she didn't exist. Could she actually be a figment of the Swede's imagination? We can never know for sure.