Chapter 7-Symbolism
A symbol is a person, object, setting, or event that means something more than its literal meaning. It brings something deeper to the work. Don’t let the idea of looking for symbolism scare you or ruin your enjoyment of a story. Enjoy them as a way of seeing something even deeper than what the author is saying on the surface. Some are quite obvious, and some are more subtle, but if you don’t see all of them the same way another reader sees them, you’ll still be able to appreciate the story itself. Some readers assume that everything in literature has a symbolic meaning, but many things do not. Don’t assume everything is symbolic. With a second or third reading, many of the symbols will become obvious but even if they don’t, you should still enjoy the story that you are reading.
Symbols are all around us in the real world outside of fiction. Wedding rings are a symbol. The American flag is a symbol. The red on the flag for the blood of patriots, the stars for the states, that type of symbolism is easy for us all to see. Christmas trees are symbols. Crosses are symbols even if you aren’t a Christian. You still are aware of some of the meaning or some of what a cross represents when you see it. A crown usually represents royalty of some type. Literature uses these conventional symbols also. You’ll immediately know what they mean when you see them.
However, an author can use symbols created internally by the story. Quite often in literature, food is used symbolically as are animals, even houses, as in Wuthering Heights. Literature can use easy-to-see symbols such as a houseplant that thrives or dies as the fortunes of a family thrive or wane in A Raisin in the Sun. In Wuthering Heights, a tree crashes in the roof of a house during a storm as the antagonist is leaving the house in a rage. It doesn’t take much thought to recognize that the author is using symbolism in these stories. Some symbolism is more subtle. The Overlook Hotel in The Shining is a symbol of isolation and imprisonment that might not be quickly seen by a reader. The golden snitch in the Harry Potter books can represent Harry’s constant searching for the truth.
Allegories use extended symbolism usually with a single fixed meaning given to a person or thing. In Pilgrim’s Progress, a man named Christian, going from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, is obviously an extended symbol or metaphor. The symbolism of the character remains the same from the beginning of the book to the end.
Students sometimes worry about whether they can spot symbolism or not. You may not have anything jump out at you in the first reading. That’s ok! It can take more than one careful, thoughtful reading to recognize what the author is doing. The first time through, you may just be seeing the actual events, but as you continue to look at and think about a story, deeper issues become clear. In Bartleby the Scrivner, you may not notice all the walls and locked doors the first time through or even the second time through, but if you continue to read it, or if someone mentions these symbols, they suddenly spring out at you and become obvious. Symbols may also represent more than one thing in a story, just as a story may have more than one theme.
If you decide that something is symbolic, be sure the text supports that conclusion. Symbols can’t represent just anything. It’s tempting to make up ways in which everything in the story represents something else, and I’ve had papers submitted by students trying to create symbolism for objects when their interpretation clearly was not supported by the text, so just read what’s there and don’t try to make up something that the text won’t support.
With any story from a competent author, you should be able to enjoy the story as is without looking for symbolism, but finding the deeper meanings that the author has used will just add to your enjoyment and understanding!