Tyrian purple in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. Its significance is such that the name Phoenicia means 'land of purple.' It came in various shades, the most prized being that of "blackish clotted blood". Tyrian purple was expensive: the 4th-century-BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols, whose use was restricted by sumptuary laws. The most senior Roman magistrates wore a "toga praetexta", a white toga edged with a stripe of Tyrian purple.
Prized Possessions parents’ behaviour. This is apparent when he describes the sounds of his father’s labor as “meaningless energy” that finds “its way through [his] skull and into [his] brain, leaving no room for anything else” (113). In the wake of observing his own parents go mad, the symptoms start to manifest themselves in him through his constant fear and irritability. Prized Possessions Setting Main Characters Supporting Characters The story begins with the speaker’s groaning and cynical comment on “poverty,” in which he redefines it as something highly substantial than what many people consider it to be, something “that clings to you”