If we want to figure out what a symbol might mean, we have to use a variety of tools on it: questions, experience, preexisting knowledge. What else is Forster doing with caves? What are other outcomes in the text, or uses of caves in general that we can recall? What else can we bring to bear on this cave that might yield up meaning? So here we go.
I have to ask what if an author genuinely didn’t mean for something to be a symbol and people interpret it that way? What if something that was meant to be irrelevant comes to be under scrutinisation? How do we know whether the author intended something to be a symbol? If we misinterpret something, is that at the fault of the reader or the author?
