The world is full of many things that have multiple meanings both literally and figuratively. As much as one would love to have one single meaning assigned to each individual word that exists, unfortunately that’s just not how it is. It makes everything about the English language extremely complex and confusing both for people that speak it as well as people trying to learn how to speak it. In “Is That a Symbol?” 

by Thomas C. Foster, he exemplifies these different meanings through the uses of caves as a symbol in the works of fellow authors. He takes each piece and uses it to show how each one can have its own personal interpretation on the symbol of the cave based on the type of person reading or writing the work.

In his first example he references the novel, A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. The caves work as a symbol for bad news in this instance. He uses this example as a baseline for all of his other examples. Often times when a cave is used as a symbol it is a place where evil exists in the form of a villain. Foster points out that the caves are considered “remarkable in some ill-defined way, mysterious”(Foster 19). His emphasis on the cave in this example is the mystery that comes with it. The remarkable aspect of the caves is what sparks the character’s interest; it causes them to wonder what embodies the caves. The remarkable aspect to go along with the mystery is what draws the character in. This is an issue because it shows the potential issues when he says “ The caves turn out to be not quite as advertised: isolated in a barren wasteland, unadorned, strange, uncanny” (Foster 19). This shows that there is no way to know what is inside the cave unless it is entered; it could be a treasure or some monster. The darkness of the cave works both literally and figuratively in this instance. The cave is literally dark, not allowing someone to see which presents its own dangers, which goes along with its figurative meaning that darkness represents evil. This is how the cave is often represented in literature but it does not stop there. Someone with darker thoughts in their life might have more of a negative view of a cave while someone more positive may think of it optimistically. They both do not know what is inside yet they may have a completelely different outlook. There are many other ways to perceive a cave as stated before. 

Caves can also be looked at in history to represent what they did in the past. Foster brings up this angle and makes a good point through The Republic that was written in the B.C. era by Plato. Caves can also have a much simpler meaning. Foster makes this point by saying that “the cave, on some level, suggests a connection to the most basic and primitive elements in our nature” (Foster 19). To these ancestors caves represented places of safe haven. A cave could be used as shelter in the event of a terrible storm just like a house could many years later. A cave in this instance is also thought of as a place where humans derived from. This is a literal example of a cave rather than a figurative symbol. Everything that is present today originated from these cavemen and their drawings on walls. Foster offers this up to show the drastic contrast between this representation of protection and that of the mysterious and dangerous cave. 

It is also possible to view the cave as being a combination of the two previous interpretations. The cave can be looked at as both safe and unsafe even as ironic as it may sound. For example, Foster uses the example of Adela’s cave in A Passage to India once again as an extension of his argument. Adela uses the cave to get “safely away from the Indians who have hated her and the English who now hate her” yet this escape causes her to face a “confrontation with the terrors she has denied” (Foster 21). This ironically puts together the previous two examples of the cave being a safe haven and it being a place where evil resides. This further emphasizes the point that one symbol does not have to directly correlate to one meaning. A symbol can be subject to just one or several different understandings. 

Thomas C. Foster presents the case that the interpretation symbol of a cave has no limits. He states that, “We bring an individual history to our reading, mix of previous readings, to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement, and philosophical inclination” (Foster 21). The aspects that combine to form a reader’s interpretation do not come from one simple event. The interpretations are comprised of everything in the reader’s life leading up to that point, no matter how big or how small the event is. The human mind can take a reader through endless translations. This leads to the fact that the cave can also be looked at as a symbol of emptiness. The emptiness that embodies a cave allows for many different perceptions depending on the mind of the reader. In the end the reader has all the power to change the personal meaning of the symbol. Foster uses numerous examples to show just how drastically different one person’s interpretation may be compared to the others. In a dark and suspenseful context such as the one in A Passage to India, a reader may perceive the cave to be a place with a virtual “do not enter” sign on it. On the other hand when in a more positive and brighter context such as the one in Plato’s The Republic, the reader may perceive the cave as somewhere to reside for the time being. The two big differences in these two examples perfectly represent what Thomas C. Foster was trying to prove, that any symbol can be manipulated into a personal meaning. 