Leather Gloves Symbol Analysis

The leather gloves that Wilona buys her children each winter represent the ways in which Kenny and his siblings are financially privileged. Of course, they’re certainly not rich, but they do have some things that other kids at school don’t have—like, for instance, beautiful leather gloves lined with rabbit fur. Rufus doesn’t have any gloves, so Kenny gives him a pair of his own, since the Watson children each receive two pairs every winter. Kenny’s willingness to share with Rufus is a testament to his tendency to help others whenever he can. Rather than gloating about how nice his gloves are, he comes up with a way to make sure his friend doesn’t have to play in the snow with his bare hands. However, Larry Dunn ends up stealing Kenny’s second pair of gloves. At first, Kenny is angry about what Larry has done, so he tells Byron, who takes back the gloves and beats Larry up. But as Kenny watches Byron pushing Larry around, he sees that Larry is wearing extremely light, torn-up clothing on a very cold day, suggesting that Larry’s family—like Rufus’s—can’t afford to give him warm clothes. In the end, Kenny wishes he had never said anything to Bryon, since he would rather have let Larry keep the gloves than watch his brother humiliate him in the cold. The gloves themselves thus symbolize not just the few privileges that Kenny gets to enjoy, but also his awareness that not everyone comes from the same financial background.