Symbolism: Not everything has meaning

I'm sure you've been there. You're in English class, reading a book, you know, something's going on. Let's say, for an example, that a female character is standing by a window looking out of it, just looking out to her front lawn. And you're reading it as it is, a lady looking out her front window.

"Actually her standing just before the window with the light shining on her face is symbolic of her desire for her husband to return home which is why she's looking out the front window from the back window."

Wait, what? Um...you sure?

"Yes why else would the walls be painted red, which obviously stands for love?"

No, wait, that's just the color they preferred? Maybe it does symbolize love but does that have anything to do with the window?

"It has everything to do with the window. Now write me a paper on it."

How can I write a paper on a window?



That, folks, is what professors and scholars call symbolism. When something becomes something of a metaphor in a story. Two people going down a tunnel is a symbol of change. A blooming flower is a symbol of growth. That kind of stuff.

But, are we sure it's not the other thing? And by the other thing, I mean isn't the flower just a flower? A hammer just a hammer?

I mean, sure, there are certain things that almost universally carry symbolism with them. A shield symbolizes defense, because it is used for defense. A sword, then, will symbolize offense, because it is used to attack (I know you can use it to block, just roll with it).

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not a professional writer. I'm not a college professor who has studied literature all their life and knows about pretty much every classical story and author there is. I can't look at Hawthorne's works and comprehend them in a blink. I look at Young Goodman Brown like, "It's a guy who goes in the woods, sees a weird ritual, then wakes up."

"OH but you are so wrong, dude! See all of that stuff, like him "unconsciously" continuing his journey and the old man's serpent staff, those are symbolic for things."

Hmm. Well, I suppose if you're coming at the stories from a literary perspective, you will be looking for symbols adamantly. I was just saying that as a writer, one who writes stories that can have symbolism, most of the things we're pointing out are probably wrong.

Ever since I learned how to insert symbolism/ foreshadowing into my story, I've learned a new skill: how to tell when a writer is using symbolism and when he is saying that the oak tree is old because the oak tree has been standing for a long time and for no other reason. That said, I'm going to be wrong in most of my interpretations. But I'm not here today to exemplify different parts of literature and show you what is symbolic and what isn't. Merely to give my thoughts on why not all things that can be symbolic are.

Alright so I already covered the sword and shield, that was quite easy. So what about the other things? What about the flower in the girl's hair given to her from her fallen lover? What about the tattoo on the man's left forearm with "666" on it? Those are pretty much a given. The girl's flower is a memory of her lover and the "666" is symbolic of the man being a satanic...or someone that just got a bad tattoo one day.

Then there are the ones that are a little more implicit, the ones that we can look for, and if we tread too deep, then it becomes ridiculous. Certain moments convey this, and color gets me every single time. I use color in my writing sometimes, and yes, it can be symbolic. Green eyes means you are a good Spirit, and red eyes means you are a Dark Spirit. Easy, I explained this to you for you to remember. But that blue wall in Axel's room? No, literary genius, it does not symbolize what you are about to say. His room was blue when they painted it because it was a nice color, that's it. End of that story, move on.

"You're reading too much into it." I like to say that a lot. Because often times, we find that if we are pressuring into a reading assignment when we are looking for something, we do read too much into something. I do that sometimes, too, I'll admit I'm a victim of it. I may have even done it on some blog posts in the past where I talked about dark fantasy or broken heroes. However, I like to think that I've got it down at this point. You might read a Percy Jackson book and think that Percy's rejection of becoming a god on Olympus is the author saying he wants to retain his humanity.

And you would be wrong, it is Percy's way of saying that he wants to remain a hero on Earth, that he does not want to be away from his friends, it hardly has anything with immortality. In Harry Potter you might think that Harry's need for glasses is symbolic for his his of friends to see the right path (yeah that was pushing it but hey, I needed an example). You're wrong. He needs glasses because he can't see properly without them--although running into the pillar on Platform 9 and three-quarters would not be too hard, I bet.

Reading too much into things can confuse students, though, including myself. There are certain pieces that can trip up us rather easily. Do the colors in The Great Gatsby really have that much to do with the overall story of Gatsby? Sure, the "A" in The Scarlet Letter is symbolic, for adultery, that one we don't have to delve to deep into. Her daughter, though, may or may not be symbolic for innocence (I think that's what the symbol is supposed to be, correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe she's just a regular little girl of the time? Why not? There were millions of them, and you're telling me she's a symbol?

Objects can be symbols and these are more often than not just what they appear to be at face value. Really? That gun the guy is using is a symbol for his hatred of mankind? You sure? Nah, you're wrong, it's a weapon, and he's at risk of killing someone with it. In my story a character forges a sword and, even though it seems like the forging and the weapon itself is really symbolic of something, it's not. It's the sword needed to defeat the enemy, that is it.

Now if the author focuses in on something specific, then yes, you can see it as a symbol. If a character keeps returning to that one flower in the garden, then yes, it will symbolize something, like longing or hope. But the small flower Bruce Wayne brings to Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins? It was a drug-flower, it was just part of the assignment Ra's had for him, nothing of severe importance or of drastic symbolism.

When I'm writing, I have this sense, I suppose I could call it, of when I am using symbolism. Like, in my mind I'm thinking, "yes, this is symbolism, they should notice this." But if a character is getting beaten up, I'm not thinking, "oh, yes, definitely, these people are my character's repressed fears in a physical form." No, that would be ridiculous, the offenders are just a bunch of people beating on my character. Nothing to it.

I particularly enjoy when villains proclaim what their symbol is. "I am fire...I am death!" so quoteth Smaug from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. There you go, Smaug is symbolic of death. "This is now the ultimate power of the universe!" Okay, the Death Star is supposed to be a place of the Empire's power. Yet when the character does not proclaim what they are, don't just get to assuming that they are symbolic of something.

Comic book heroes and villains suffer from this mostly. Adam Warlock and his enemy The Magus have a symbolic relationship because The Magus represents Adam Warlock's antithesis. The Joker and Batman, too, have a symbolic relationship: Batman is order, the Joker is anarchy. "You have rules, the Joker, he don't got any rules." Well, in that case, you have a nice fall, Maroni. See you in TDKR...ha, just kidding.

Don't think, though, that certain characters represent themes. Batman's story is sad, but, don't think that the character of Batman is the symbol of carrying weight. Superman is alienated, but don't view Superman as a symbol for alienation. They aren't, they are heroes and that was what they were made to be. Certain characters, like The Magus and Death (yes, the character death that Thanos the Mad Titan falls in love with), are surely meant to be symbolic, yet again this is explicit, we know it because either they say it or because it is so obvious it almost hurts....like the character Death.

People always joke that authors think their readers take things either too literally or read too far into things. Oftentimes, we do. As an author, I can see where they are coming from (although not enough people have read my work to really consider anything as implicitly symbolic). It is a little funny to see people struggling with what something means when the reality of the matter is that it simply does not mean anything other than what we simply see it as.

Not everything is integral to a story. We need to step back and see what is important before diving into the symbolism and connections of things, else we should make fools of ourselves as readers and as fans.

See you next time!