As any English teacher will tell you, symbols are in nearly every book written before 1990. The joke I always refer to is;
Book: The curtains were blue
English teacher: The color blue symbolizes the author's feelings of sadness
Book: The curtains were blue
English teacher: The color blue symbolizes the author's feelings of sadness
The Author: The curtains...were...FUCKING. BLUE.
In some regards, the author is right. There is no reason to point out fake symbols.
In other regards, the teacher is right. Writers tend to hide things in plain sight.
Most people who read don't really care about the small symbols in a novel. Unless they recur over time, they stand to have little significance to the story at hand.
So, the curtains are blue. And the house is blue. And the carpet is blue. And all this shit is blue.
(There's a good possibility that your character is in an Eiffel 65 song)
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All the blue-ness is well and good, and as they increase, the reader might put 2 and 2 together with the picture you're painting in very blue, soft tones.
"This character is sad" without saying it outright.
"This character is sad" without saying it outright.
Symbolism in dreams
Some people believe their dreams are a prediction to how their day will go. But actually, dreams tell you what's on your subconscious mind in the vaguest way possible because why make it easy to figure out?
To better understand my dreams (as well as myself) I found a site that interprets dreams. You type in what you want to understand, and connect whatever you can from it. It sort of makes it fun figuring out your brain conspiracies.
Let's say I had a dream about a blue zippo lighter while in the parking lot at a local Denny's.
By being vague, such as looking up "Lighter" instead of "Blue Zippo", I can find my results faster and start connecting my dream world to the real world. As you go from there, a lighter representing the spark of a new idea, I can look up smaller details, the word "blue." Blue represents wisdom, so this idea may be a smart idea (Hence why I don't have this dream this often)
What would I do for the last part of the dream? Denny's seems too...specific and modern. Start small; Parking lot.
A Parking lot represents the need to slow down. By slowing down and thinking about this new idea, I can make it work.
From here, point out smaller details you remember, such as the color of the cars and their colors, if there even were cars, the time of day, the time of year, etc.
Doing things like this can help you understand symbolism, and wrap your head around exactly what a symbol is.
Let's say I had a dream about a blue zippo lighter while in the parking lot at a local Denny's.
By being vague, such as looking up "Lighter" instead of "Blue Zippo", I can find my results faster and start connecting my dream world to the real world. As you go from there, a lighter representing the spark of a new idea, I can look up smaller details, the word "blue." Blue represents wisdom, so this idea may be a smart idea (Hence why I don't have this dream this often)
What would I do for the last part of the dream? Denny's seems too...specific and modern. Start small; Parking lot.
A Parking lot represents the need to slow down. By slowing down and thinking about this new idea, I can make it work.
From here, point out smaller details you remember, such as the color of the cars and their colors, if there even were cars, the time of day, the time of year, etc.
Doing things like this can help you understand symbolism, and wrap your head around exactly what a symbol is.
The adage of growing up
A lot of coming of age stories have the main character learning a lesson about growing up. Such as Scott Pilgrim, one of my most favorite franchises of all time. Scott Pilgrim shows he's immature by dating a high schooler, being unemployed, and complaining constantly.
He finds out by the end that he needs to respect himself before dealing with love or music. If you haven't read the manga, I highly recommend it. It's 8 volumes and so worth it. It made me feel really sad.
When I was in high school, and forgive me but I forget the name of the story, my English teacher had us read a story about a guy who was visiting his hometown, except now, he was freakishly tall. He couldn't fit through doorways, or even sit down without his hat falling off. She told us that the reason he was so tall was because he had outgrown his hometown. He outgrew their ways, traditions, and general way of life, for bigger things.
This made me rethink many things about writing. It was a whole new dimension.
The author could have made this character sick when he was growing up, almost with an everlasting cold. Then, when he left town, grew up, and then came back, he'd be healthy, symbolizing that he was sick of the town.
Or he could have been sleepy all the time. Leaving and coming back, he would have been alert and awake, showing he was tired of the town.
Things like that really get the creative juices flowing! They scream the most silently.
This method is one of my favorites to dissect because it's so vague, but also so meaningful.
I'm going to come back to this topic eventually, because it's so large and I have so much to say about it, especially for music.
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| Opens 13 job searching tabs, applies to nothing, complains about being sad |
When I was in high school, and forgive me but I forget the name of the story, my English teacher had us read a story about a guy who was visiting his hometown, except now, he was freakishly tall. He couldn't fit through doorways, or even sit down without his hat falling off. She told us that the reason he was so tall was because he had outgrown his hometown. He outgrew their ways, traditions, and general way of life, for bigger things.
This made me rethink many things about writing. It was a whole new dimension.
The author could have made this character sick when he was growing up, almost with an everlasting cold. Then, when he left town, grew up, and then came back, he'd be healthy, symbolizing that he was sick of the town.
Or he could have been sleepy all the time. Leaving and coming back, he would have been alert and awake, showing he was tired of the town.
Things like that really get the creative juices flowing! They scream the most silently.
This method is one of my favorites to dissect because it's so vague, but also so meaningful.
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| Unlike something else that's vague. |
What about you? What are some of your favorite stories to dissect? What symbols have you found in your reading?
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| Beautifully crafted in MS Paint. Just for you, my special guy |
[Webdings predicted 9/11, and thus is banned from being used on this blog thank you]
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