You are often asked in an English class what this or that means. Once you’ve come up with a meaning you must support your reasoning with evidence from the text. In some cases there are definitive answers for what something means, and there are other cases when the meanings of something are totally up to the reader’s perspective. This is what I’ve learned from reading the twelfth chapter of “How to Read Literature like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. In this chapter, Foster talks about the ambiguity of symbolism. In his opinion, the meanings of symbols in stories are totally up to the reader’s perspective. He simply means that any symbol can mean anything as long as you are able to back up your meaning. Yes, of course, there are some interpretations that make more sense than others which is why it is such a confusing concept. This all boils down to mean whatever the reader thinks Foster is trying to say...ha. What I've said so far is all in my opinion.
There are many in the world who would
refute the argument, but to me, I think that symbolism can’t be broken down to
mean one thing. If symbolism were that simple, we wouldn’t have any difficulties trying to figure out how art, being all types, affects the world around us. Moving forward, authors may use symbols to entice readers
into a beautiful experience that allows them to think critically and wonder how
things have developed. Symbols display a picture that guides a reader to think
about what they have experienced through life and makes them come up with a
meaning from their perspective. We can even say that we have symbolism
sprouting at every corner of our lives guiding us to the path ahead of us. But
with that statement, I might be getting ahead of myself. I just simply believe
that symbolism can’t have one meaning. A symbol just has many meanings with
some that make more sense than others. Take the reflection scene from “The Lion
King” for example. Simba receives a vision from his father that tells him who
he really is. We could say this is the point where Simba was truly reborn, or
we could say that the reflection was a simple reminder of Simba’s place in
nature. Going off of this idea, we could come up with a slew of answers but
none of them may be right to all. Everyone has a different perspective on an
idea.
Like I said before, symbols have many
meanings that come in many different forms. There are some meanings for some
pieces of literature that are out of this world. To me, instead of everyone
trying to justify their own meaning, we should embrace the many ideas that some
individuals come up with. But again, if we were to follow my system, we would
probably have no use for school, everyone would think only for themselves, and
no one would contribute to the discussion brought on by someone else’s
perspective on a certain symbol. In most
cases you’re able to put a label on something, but you just can’t when you live
in a world with diverse human beings.
