In the movie Citizen Kane, the sled is a symbol of earlier happiness, the mystery behind the publisher’s dying word: Rosebud.
By Ted Witt, Pretty Road Press
Congratulations, your book has an intriguing story arc, memorable characters, and dramatic scenes. You may have a published a captivating page-turner, but is it literature in the classic sense? Symbolism can make that classic difference. Effective use of symbolism can carry your story to the next level.
“Symbols are, by definition, people, places, and things that have significance that goes beyond their literal meaning, pointing to larger ideas and values,” says William Cane in his book Write Like the Masters. “They can add power to a work of art and give it a fuller, more weighty feel… Indeed, reader satisfaction is almost always higher, and a work appears more literary, when symbolism is present and handled in a way that meshes well with the story.”
If we understand how to interpret symbols in literature, we can reverse engineer our hermeneutics so that we will know how to include symbolism more effectively in the novel we write. Here are four principles of interpretation followed by some annotations for writers:
1. Understand the literal, reasonable meaning first
The person, place, thing, action, scene, or character made out to be a symbol has a real and significant role in your novel apart from any potential symbolism. A mere metaphorical phrase may not have a significant role in advancing the storyline. A symbol will. Any language intended as symbolism has to stand on its own with a literal meaning. A writer can’t just insert an object with no connection to the story. That’s what dreadful film directors do. The potential symbol has to be realistic, plausible, and integrated into the story line.
Imagine you wrote that a businessman walking in downtown Manhattan stops to remove a pebble from his shoe. You intend that the pebble is a symbol of the perpetual life annoyances developing patience in the character. That’s not plausible or reasonable for a scene set along the paved streets of Manhattan. But a person hiking the John Muir trail in sandals may very well stop to remove a pebble under his foot. That’s plausible, and the hiking scene may be a significant contributor to the story line, so use the symbol in that scene not the one in New York City.
Make your symbols realistic, like Robert Frost does. In Frost’s poem “Out, Out–,” the poet describes a horrific farm accident. The verses have a definitive story arc, capturing the attention of readers. If you took nothing from the poem but the description of a farm boy being called to dinner, losing his attention, and suffering a fatal injury, you would be captivated by your reading. But behind the story is plenty of symbolism with references to Macbeth, a reminder of the fragility of life, and the indifference of a hostile world.
2. Look for clues the author gives that help interpret the symbol.
When an author purposely uses a symbol, he or she will produce more evidence to help you find the meaning. The best authors drop clues. An author shows, but does not tell. An author hints, but does not fully explain. Many readers try too hard to find symbolism that is not actually there. When authors want you to take away a double meaning, they drop hints. So should you, too, as a writer. Let readers exercise their imagination, but keep them on course by being consistence and true to your theme. Consider the green light in Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby. The light makes multiple appearances in the novel. It tells Gatsby to move forward. It represents unfilled attainment of Daisy, of wealth, of the American dream. In each instance, Fitzgerald hints, bringing readers to their own interpretive conclusion when he finally writes, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us them, but that’s no matter—to-morrow will be run faster, stretch out further….”
3. Literature reflects the time in which it is written, so apply a time context in your interpretation.
The key here is that current events, contemporary culture, and modern debates influence a writer’s words, even if the end product is historical fiction or science fiction. While symbolism has to be realistic for the time setting of the novel, plot conflict has to be relevant to the emotions, concerns, and thinking of the contemporary reader. So in a William W. Johnstone western, a tree may stand for justice in the frontier, but the message of that symbol will be analyzed through 21st– century glasses revealing current attitudes and controversies about justice. For the writer, this means choosing symbols that are relevant to the setting of your story, but with messages that address the struggles of a modern audience.
4. Literature reflects the author’s biases, so understand the author.
Writers by definition convey a message. They believe in things. They cannot escape their values, their experience, and their foundational principles. So these biases will be found in their symbols. This is part of a writer’s voice. You can tell when writers are not being true to their voice. The writing seems fake. They are trying too hard. So when you write, be true to what you believe in your heart. Incorporate those beliefs into symbols. Don’t use your narrative to preach. Don’t use trite and cliché symbols like rocks for strength or yellow for cowardice. Avoid symbolic clichés as ferociously as you eschew jargon. Make your characters live like you believe and how you see others interacting in your world. Their props, their environment, and their behaviors can all be symbols.
5. Symbols are purposely ambiguous.
Part of the joy of reading is making the story personal. All readers will color a story with their own interpretations. Let them. Don’t be so obtuse with your symbols that a reader has to take only one point of view. Make the reader ask questions and come to conclusions. Let them be wrong. It would be handy, says Thomas G. Foster in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, for a symbol to mean one thing and one thing only, “but that handiness would result in a net loss; the novel would cease to be what it is, a network of meanings and significations that permits a nearly limitless range of interpretations.”
Reading is an event of the imagination, Foster says. When authors tell too much, they take away creativity and inventiveness from readers.
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