Symbolism Adds to Fiction’s Synergism

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Nicholas Evans (Associated Press photo/Tina Fineberg).

The last time I devoted a whole post to symbolism in novels was in 2014 – the year this blog started. So, I’d like to revisit that topic via some books I’ve read since then or that I read before 2014 but didn’t mention in that previous post.

As I noted 12 years ago, symbolism can make a novel more interesting and evocative. It’s another element in the mix to draw in readers — along with the plot, characters, prose quality, etc.

I recently read Nicholas Evans’ riveting novel The Divide, which offers a compelling mystery, a heartbreaking family saga…and a symbolic title with multiple meanings. In the book, The Divide is the literal name of a Montana vacation spot where a meeting of two characters (one married to someone else) leads to a fateful romance that helps drive the plot. The title also evokes thoughts of the West/East, rural/urban, and ideological divides in the United States – and of “the divide” between women and men that’s a major theme as the storyline unfolds.

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden does the symbolism thing with a number of Biblical references, including the Trask sons Caleb and Aron having a Cain and Abel dynamic along with the same initials. Their father’s first name in the novel? Adam, of course.

The star of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is obviously not literally an invisible man, but he is one figuratively because African-American citizens – especially decades ago — were not truly and truthfully SEEN by many people in a racist majority-white society.

Marcel Proust’s opus In Search of Lost Time features the serving of a delicious madeleine that triggers nostalgic memories. It’s both a cake and a symbol.

The pigs and other creatures in George Orwell’s Animal Farm are obviously symbolic stand-ins for humans.

Gregor Samsa becoming a giant insect in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis symbolizes alienation, dehumanization, loss of identity, and more.

The title character of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is a living/breathing huge white whale but its existence also symbolically represents obsessive pursuit that can be pointless.

In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Mississippi River is a…river…but also a literal symbol of freedom for the slave Jim and a more figurative symbol of the opening of Huck’s mind as he matures.

Robert Louis Stevenson uses the title character(s) in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to shine a symbolic spotlight on the good-evil duality of many humans.

In my 2014 post, among the many novels I mentioned were George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (which uses recurring water situations in a symbolic way), Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna (whose title is an actual place in the novel but also symbolically has plot significance as a gap/blank space/missing part), and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (in which “Gogol” is the actual name of a character even as that name evokes the absurdity of life in its reference to the often-absurdist Russian author Nikolai Gogol).

My 2014 post also noted that symbolism sometimes involves the initials of character names – including Jim Casy, the Jesus Christ figure in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath; Martin Eden, the semi-autobiographical “me” in Jack London’s Martin Eden; and Undine Spragg, who embodies crass U.S. materialism and ruthless ambition in Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

Misty the cat says: “I got my steps today, and also got my ladders.”

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…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

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60 thoughts on “Symbolism Adds to Fiction’s Synergism”

  1. Such an interesting topic.

    Don’t tell anyone (lol) but I really enjoyed seeing how many of the books you’ve cited, I’d read. (This joy in the camaraderie of a post/discussion was tempered, however, with coming face-to-face with how long ago it was.)

    My recollection of my first encounter with the idea of symbolism in literature time-travels me back to high school. Twain and Stevenson, of coursem and, for god knows what reason my most persistent memory artifact is… Ethan Frome, The Mill on the Floss and, everyone’s favorite ‘The Scarlet Letter. I really enjoyed the classroom discussion of these fun reads. (Never too early in life to practice one’s weird.)

    Then, on to college where Metamorphosis and Animal Farm replaced letter sweaters and an interest in mainstream.

    The idea of an author factoring in symbolism while crafting such timeless books and stories as are mentioned in your post and the Comments just knocks me out! lol Such talent. ayiiee

    (good thing my second WIP went strait for pulp noir. Ain’t nothin’ too ethereal or subtly resonating with the human condition than a strip club owner by the name of Lou Caesare hiring a dancer by the name Rue DeNite. damn! Caesare? no nothing symbolic)

    thanks for writing a post I could relate and remember to

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    • Thank you, Clark! I enjoyed your comment! Always fun to have read many of the books a blog post mentions. 🙂 And it’s interesting how many of the same novels are assigned in high school and college (“The Scarlet Letter,” “Animal Farm,” others you listed, etc.). By the way, “Ethan Frome” was the first Edith Wharton novel I read (on my own, not in school) and I think it’s actually quite good. Anyway, it does indeed take skill for authors to include memorable symbolism in novels. And, yes, “pulp noir” and certain other genre books often are pretty much symbol-free.

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  2. I was amused to see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mentioned, as I just went to Chicago this last weekend and saw the musical adaptation! 🙂 It was pretty good. I love symbolism in literature. When I’m writing my own stories, I try to incorporate it through character names. 🙂

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  3. A theme close to my heart, Dave. As a person who sees symbols everywhere in our day-to-day lives, I use symbols in my writing and enjoy stories rich in symbolism, such as those mentioned in your post. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I saw the kite as a symbol of redemptive power.

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  4. I’ve never been a big fan of going on symbol safari; it’s always felt reductive to me. Your post has got me thinking. I would consider the examples you’ve given as metaphors, rather than symbols, but now I’m wondering what’s the difference between a symbol and a metaphor?

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  6. I loved several of the books you mentioned concerning symbolism,Dave, and thank you very much! Another one I could maybe mention is The Great Gatsby, who has a very big dream, or wants to get Daisy back , but these dreams are not always sooo easy to realize!

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  7. Hi Dave, this is most interesting. I feel I have read rather a lot of these kinds of novels, and even if I didn’t realize something more deep in a book, like The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka which I read in our school library many years ago – I was rather young for that. Still, some other thoughts are these. The wonderful Life of Pi by Yann Matel – the book and the film too. I really enjoyed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I very much liked The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I also read it in Spanish, even though that book was originally written in Portuguese.

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    • Thank you, Chris! Interesting and correct observation that we might not pick up on symbolism in a novel if we read it when very young. But when the later reread happens… 🙂

      And I appreciate the mentions of those several novels with symbolic elements! I also loved “Life of Pi,” but didn’t like “The Alchemist” as much as I expected — though I know it’s a deep book in its way.

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  9. Hi Dave, a fascinating post! Dickens used symbolism brilliantly, giving his characters and houses names that reflected the social ills of his time. Lord of the Flies is another compelling novel that makes powerful use of symbolism

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    • Thank you, K. Ravindra! You’re very right that Charles Dickens, and William Golding in “Lord of the Flies,” used symbolism very skillfully. In “Great Expectations,” for instance, Miss Havisham is of course a specific person but also represents things like the awfulness of grief, not getting on with life, and societal decay.

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  10. Hi Dave, and yet another thought-provoking post about which I need time for thought. You mention water in ‘Daniel Deronda’, which brings to mind the author’s ‘The Mill on the Floss’, in which the eponymous Mill, a symbol of the means of sustaining life for the Tulluver family which needs water to keep in motion. Starved of water when the latter is diverted upstream it cannot function, causing the collapse of the family too. There’s also the ‘rumour mill’ in which poor Maggie is caught and destroyed socially – although I can’t be sure that Eliot had this in mind. I’ll get back to you if I have more, Dave, but thanks again for the post. 😊

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  11. I remember reading “The Old Man and the Sea” in HS English class and Mrs Steidly patient unpacking the manifold symbolism and the takeaway of accepting defeat while retaining dignity. The sea, a source of life but also danger; the marlin, not just prey but a worthy adversary; Santiago’s dreams and struggles. And here I thought it was just some dumb book about fishing 😂

    I’ve always enjoyed “The Stand”…and the symbolism there is unmistakable… “The Walking Dude” representing evil, Mother Abigail, good; and the survivors coalescing into two huge communities based on their proclivities. Bonus: “Trashcan Man” getting his jollies blowing up oil storage tanks 😮‍💨😨😂

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    • Thank you, Darryl! Great mention of “The Old Man and the Sea,” which is somewhat similar in its sea-set symbolism to “Moby-Dick.” Funny line: “And here I thought it was just some dumb book about fishing.” 😂

      I also appreciate the interesting mention of “The Stand,” which I had not thought of in symbolic terms until seeing your comment.

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  13. I don’t really have anything to add to this excellent topic, Dave. I do remember looking for symbolism in assigned books and stories in school, and I used alchemy as a rather obvious symbol in a couple of my own books.
    Blame it on too many elections. We’ve voted in two in as many weeks: municipal a week ago yesterday and provincial yesterday. Plus we Canadians are fretting about your midterm election coming up.

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    • Thank you, Audrey!

      Symbolism is very interesting to look for as a reader — and nice that you’ve used that yourself as an author.

      Voting can definitely occupy a person’s time and energy, and I totally understand Canadians fretting about the upcoming U.S. midterms. Hoping for a bit more of a legislative check in the next two years on Trump’s countless disgusting actions, including the atrocious way he has treated Canada.

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  15. Dave, your post made me think immediately of Faust, which I have been reading very slowly this year. I am beginning to realize how much of its power comes from objects that gradually take on meaning beyond themselves. The Easter bells call Faust back to memories of life. The poison vial becomes a threshold he is preparing to cross. And now I have reached the black poodle, which already suggests that what we see on the surface may not be what is really there. I also thought of Night Train to Lisbon. The train journey feels like more than travel to me. Gregorius is leaving the familiar shape of his life and moving toward something within himself that has gone unexplored. What I enjoy most about symbolism is that it allows an ordinary object or place to remain completely real while quietly carrying another story underneath it.

    This is a quote from Night Train to Lisbon that made me think “To live for the moment: it sounds so right and so beautiful. But the more I want to, the less I understand what it means.”

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Sounds like “Faust” (which I have yet to read) has plenty of symbolism! I appreciate hearing the details about that from your current/excellent deep dive into that Goethe classic that we get to experience via your blog posts.

      And, yes, journeys can be literally journeys and figuratively more than journeys.

      Last but not least, that’s a thought-provoking quote you ended with.

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