The Importance of Symbolism, or Pay Attention in English Class

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how I thought English Classes in high school should stop teaching novels.  I titled the post "English Class...huh! What is it Good For?"

Well, fans of Edwin Starr answered the provocative question, but I wasn't really suggesting that English Class was good for absolutely nothin'. 

And I've been thinking about one of the best, most important things students learn in English class: (apart from, hopefully, how to write a coherent sentence) symbolism.

This is one of the things that students complain about the most in a high school English class: "picking apart" a work of literature and looking for symbolism. That word is usually deliverd with ironic emphasis and an eyeroll in case you missed the point that the student believes this is a completely pointless exercise.

But the thing is that symbolism is hugely, colossally important in the real world. More so than almost anything else you learn in high school.

A quick example from the national stage: Barack Obama.  As all presidents are, he's more than just a person. He's got symbolic importance.  And much of the strong feeling about him on either side is fueled not by him or his policies, but by him as a symbol.  I'll admit it: as a liberal, I'm gonna vote Democratic no matter what. But whereas I was fed up pretty quickly with Bill Clinton's corporate-friendly centrism, I give Obama a pass on this, even though he ran to the left of Bill Clinton and is governing right about in the same centrist position.  Why? I think it's probably that I really like the symbolism of having an African-American President.  I like what it says about my country, and I like the message it delivers to my non-white students. In short, I like the symbol probably more than I like the actual person.  Similarly, I don't think it's an accident that Obama inspires such vitriol from a lot of white people.  White people in this country are raised in an environment that tells us in a hundred subtle and not so subtle ways that we are better than black people simply by virtue of not being black.  Having a black president undermines this pretty severely, which is why I like it.  And why some other people don't. 

Before the internet goes crazy on me again, I'm not suggesting that you are racist if you don't agree with Obama's policies.  I am suggesting that the level of vitriol and adoration out there about to this President is directly related to the symbolism of having a black man in charge.  For many white people, this is a very scary, threatening inversion of what we've been taught to think is the natural order.  For many other people of all races, it's a symbol of hope.

So, yeah. Symbolism.  Here's another example: In the neighborhood where I live, we had a dirty, disgusting supermarket where the stench of rotten meat hung thick in the air. No, really.  This supermarket, owned by white suburbanites, catered primarily to the Latino community in my neighborhood.  So basically this was a place owned by white guys who didn't think their brown customers deserved to shop in a clean store.  It was a really contemptible place.

The owners recently shut it down and leased the space to Whole Foods.  And now a small but vocal group of people are up in arms, posting flyers, putting up shady anonymous websites, organizing marches, and generally being incredibly annoying while trying to stop a private business deal that requires no neighborhood input and for which the lease is already signed.  

For numerous reasons I won't bore my non-JP-living readers with, the entire anti-Whole Foods movement in my neighborhood makes absolutely no logical sense. It's so illogical on so many fronts that I have been known to rail against its idiocy.  But it's not really idiocy.  Because apparently this issue makes powerful emotional sense due to the symbolism.  Really, replacing a Latino supermarket (owned by suburban white guys with nothing but contempt for their urban Latino customers, but there I go being logical again) with one of the two greatest symbols of white yuppiedom in this country (Starbucks being the other) is a powerful symbolic act.  What people see in this business transaction is everything that bothers them about the way this neighborhood is changing.  The fact that they are wasting valuable time and energy opposing a private business transaction that they have no legal remedy to stop while the elected city government is making disastrous decisions left and right that they might actually be able to fight doesn't seem to bother the people opposing Whole Foods. The symbolism of these businesses and the symbolism of food itself have such emotional power that they have overruled logic and even self interest in a number of my neighbors.

So kids, don't ever say that studying symbolism is a waste of time.  It's hugely important to study symbolism. It is one of the most powerful forces in the world.  So study up!