[Perry] Don’t Force Symbolism

A while ago, I listened to the audiobook On Writing, by Stephen King. I’ve touched on a few of his topics in the past, but this is one of the last bits of advice that I’ve gleaned from my listening experience and I want to share it with you today.

It has to do with the topic of theme and symbolism.

English classes may have taught us a lot about the nature of symbolism and themes in literature. We dig into word choices and the timing of certain story elements and draw parallels to the author’s life, the shape of society at the time of writing, and all kinds of other things.

Do you know what I took away from my experience dealing with this subject?

That largely speaking, it was random and an unnecessary distraction. A lot of the time, I would sit there as everyone debated and honestly asked myself how it was that I couldn’t see all of these brilliant insights and socio-political connections, and Freudian imagery that everyone else was bandying about.

I still can’t, not really.

Have you ever read The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe? By C.S Lewis?

I’ve read it a bunch of times as a kid and I enjoyed the movie as a teenager, and you know what?

Not one single time, did I make the connection of Aslan being a Christ figure in the story.

Not. One. Time.

It was only it was pointed out by the professor of my Children’s Literature course in university that I saw it…and I was floored.

King had this to say with regard to the incorporation of themes and symbolism in a story.

His advice was to WRITE the story first, and then read through it. If the themes and symbols jumped out and bit you on the knees, then great. Do what you can to reinforce them as they’ll add power to the story.

However, if they DON’T jump out at you, don’t worry about it and let it go.

One of the worst thing you can do is to try and wrangle your story around to fit the theme and symbols you wanted to express.

Doing that often tends to make the story feel forced…because it is. You’re trying to twist the characters and jerk around the plot to make it fit the message you’re trying to say instead of just telling the story and letting the natural themes and symbolic links rise from the telling.

Some examples of this may include movies such as Matrix Revolutions, and Superman Returns. In both cases, they tried to shove the Christ-figure metaphor for the protagonist’s sacrifice, SO HARD that it felt intensely awkward and really, just killed the movie.

Don’t be that person.

Tell your story. Write your STORY, not necessarily the message you want to leave the reader with.

If you do a good job, that message will arise organically, through the story and the reader will come away with it anyway.

If you force it, the story will suffer for it, and nobody wants that to happen.

This is, of course, advice for story-telling.

If you’re deliberately setting out to push a message, by all means, make it as obvious and forced as possible.

Just know that unless you’re targeting a reader who WANTS to be preached to, the reaction may not be very favorable.

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