I stumbled upon this passage while studying symbolism for my lit crit class, somewhat taken out of context:
"How do we know if a particular detail is symbolic? How do we decide whether we should look beyond the literal meaning of a dialogue or the literal value of an object or action? The simple answer to this question is that there is no way to be certain about the symbolic value of any particular details."
- Robert DiYanni, Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
HA! I KNEW IT.
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WE had a huge discussion like this in my high school english class after reading Lord of the Flies, there is a scene where Simon, the Christ figure of the book, hands a younger boy an apple, and someone asked if that symbolized the giving of the forbidden fruit and if Simon was a devil figure as well. The teacher told us "Sometimes an apple is just an apple". So the rest of the year whenever we thought she was making a symbol of something that we didn't see as a symbol we'd just ask if it was just an apple. It was great!
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