Symbols: Chapter 12

“What the cave symbolizes will be determined to a large extent by how the individual reader engages the texts. Every reader’s experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to differing degrees, and those differences will cause certain features of the text to become more or less pronounced. We bring an individual history to our reading, a mix of pervious readings, to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender race, class, faith, social involvement and philosophical inclination. These factors will inevitably influence what we understand in our reading, and nowhere is this individuality clearer than in the matter of symbolism.”

Symbols are mistaken in literature to represent one solid idea, action, or thing. In Chapter 12, Is That a Symbol?, Foster advises the readers that a symbol can mean a multitude of things not just something in particular. It’s merely a matter of the reader’s pervious reading, philosophical inclination, and educational attainment in addition to other factors that build the foundation for the reader’s perceptive of a symbol. A symbol can’t be reduced to one single statement. It will have “a range of possible meanings and interpretations” that can differ from one prospect reader to another. It is ultimately up for the reader to analyze the literature and seek the symbol’s meaning, understanding that a symbol can mean a various array of things. The reader must not look for the writer to emphasize the various “distinct elements for a giver symbol” but go in search for their own individual understanding of the symbol.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is plentiful in symbols. The scarlet letter worn upon Hester’s breast is a precisely the type of symbol Foster is talking about. Throughout the book the letter transforms into different meanings and contains a multitude of ideas and concepts. Starting as a sign of adultery it can also be a symbol of her actions of committing this dreadful act, a sign of public humiliation and a sign of an outcast. The symbol then converts to stand for “able” and a symbol of strength Hester processes. Within the book the symbol has diverse connotations to the different characters ranging from her innocent daughter Pearl to the Native Americans who visit the town. This conveys how the symbol can have different meanings from reader to reader but also demonstrate how a specific symbol can have different meanings to each of the characters within a work of literature.