How does the author use symbolism in the nonfiction book, White?

Fire is represented through several recurring images in "The Jewel in the Crown," as Dyer points out in "There's Nothing I Can Do! Nothing!" These images are to be treated as symbols, and Dyer sees in the circle of fire the suggestion of an end to all the ineffectual 'doing' in the series. The female characters especially are caught up in cycles of impotence and frustration, but their whiteness is itself the cause of the normative boundaries they face. Fire is shown as being destructive and yet, Dyer sees in it the representation of whiteness as pertains to the destruction of empire, the "deliverance from the burdens of historical enterprise" (204)