When Simeon and Peter decide to leave the farm and head west to California, Simeon describes their freedom with an apt metaphor about the "harness" tethering them to the place:
The halter’s broke—the harness is busted—the fence bars is down—the stone walls air crumblin’ an’ tumblin’! We’ll be kickin’ up an’ tearin’ away down the road!
In this scene, Simeon exclaims to Peter about their new freedom, using the metaphor that their “harness is busted.” The implication here is that they are no longer bound to the farm—like horses that have broken free, they've escaped the "halter" and "harness." What's more, the “stone walls air crumblin’ an’ tumblin,’” creating an image of the farm as a prison whose stone walls are falling down.
In this way, the brothers describe the farm as a place where they are kept by Cabot and told to work against their will. They then use a metaphor to describe their metaphorical prison as collapsing when they finally leave. Represented by the stones themselves, this metaphor of the stone walls falling suggests that their farm life is brutal and unrewarding, more of a prison and trap than the God-given duty Cabot imagines it to be.
Throughout the play, nature has a significant symbolic and metaphorical role, representing the strong emotional forces influencing the characters. Most notably, the towering elms represent the oppressive power of Maw and Abbie’s control over Cabot and Eben. Thus, it is significant that Abbie employs a metaphor about nature and the elm trees when attempting to seduce Eben. At the beginning of Part 2, Abbie teases Eben about his attraction to her despite his claims that he does not like her:
Hain't the sun strong an' hot? Ye kin feel it burnin' into the earth—Nature—makin' thin's grow—bigger ‘n’ bigger—burnin' inside ye—makin' ye want t' grow—into somethin’ else—till ye're jined with it—an’ it’s your'n—but it owns ye, too—an' makes ye grow bigger—like a tree—like them elums [...] Nature’ll beat ye, Eben. Ye Might’s well own up t’ it fust ‘s last.
Here, Abbie teasingly flirts with Eben, comparing his sexual desire for her to the strength of the sun making “thin’s grow—bigger ‘n’ bigger” “like them elums.” Using growing trees and the burning sun as a metaphor for Eben’s physical attraction to her, she puts him on the spot and makes him embarrassed of his reaction to her. This has the effect of agitating and embarrassing him while highlighting his obvious attraction to Abbie.
Importantly, this metaphor is significant because it draws on the tangible power of nature present throughout the play to demonstrate Abbie’s strong influence over Cabot and Eben. She uses her attractiveness to manipulate them, such as with this sexual metaphor that plays on the oppressive symbolic power of the elm trees.
