
The world is full of symbols, but that’s no secret.  Every day we are surrounded by countless billboards, street signs, and advertisements begging for our attention!  Yes, these are all a form of symbolism, but Thomas Foster would argue that it’s only the tip of the iceberg.  Thomas Foster, the author of “Is That a Symbol”, debates the true meaning of a symbol in his written piece.  By pulling several stories from other authors and interpreting the meaning of each, Foster brings a new definition of a symbol to expand on the ambiguity of the commonly used literary strategy.

Thomas Foster never limits the symbols he dissects into one meaning.  In fact, Foster explains that there’s already a word for that!  Foster introduces the purpose of an allegory.  An allegory, like a symbol, is something used to represent something specific, or one meaning.  Allegories can often be mistaken for symbols, because unlike allegories, symbols can have an endless amount of meanings, as opposed to just one representation.  Foster is clear in his interpretations about the equivocal style. Symbolism to Foster is more than just a fancy way to decipher an author’s writing, but an opportunity to expand on the writing, and draw your own conclusions about the existence of not just an image or picture, but also the events and actions that could have several underlying meanings.  Foster boasts about the reader’s chance to discover deeper implications about the author’s writing and why the author decided to include something specific in the story.  Foster assures that writers are perfectionists, and everything included in their stories is there for a reason, now it’s your job, as the reader, to go find it!

Foster is very defensive about the definition of a symbol.  Foster actually grabs the context of one story he’s diagnosed and labels the difference between a symbol and an allegory for you.  In the book, The Pilgrim’s Progress written by John Bunyan in 1678, the main character is defined as Christian, who is headed to Celestial City.  On route to Celestial City, Christian must overcome his hometown of the City of Destruction and avoid the temptations of the Slough of Despond, the Primrose Path, the Vanity Fair, and the Valley of Shadows.  Foster uses this traditional writing as an example because the symbolism seems more than prominent.  Foster explains that the only allegories (singular representative meaning) in the story are the character’s name, Christian, and the journey to Celestial City. That’s it.  Foster considers all other details of the story to be symbolic, and have a deeper meaning than portrayed.  The temptations Christian must overcome will have more meaning than just the names they represent, therefore, fitting the ambiguity criteria of a symbol.  Foster’s theory gives the reader more freedom to draw conclusions about the purpose of each symbol presented in the story, and the allegories serve as evidence to reinforce each usage of symbolism.  

Foster further elaborates about the complexity of defining a symbol, and what to look for when making connections back to the story.  Foster includes another novel to investigate the delicate definition of a symbol, and the many different ways it can be interpreted.  In the novel, A Passage to India written by E.M. Forster in 1924, the main character is Adela Questad who is a student who takes a trip visiting caves with her professor and her mother-in-law.  In the story, Adela Questad, who is originally infatuated with the idea of exploring caves, finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation where she feels she was assaulted in a cave by her teacher, Dr. Aziz.  Foster makes clear that symbols can’t simply be defined as an image, but also as an event or action.  The experience Adela is confronted by, and the result of her being comforted by a family she initially pegged as racist, is a symbol in itself.  

Drawing symbolic conclusions based solely on the specific event that transpired, not something as simple as a color or picture.  The caves in the story do not only represent Adela’s wishful interest, but also are symbolic of many other things after her first experience.  Perhaps they represent the lesson that they are something that must be experienced before fully understood, or maybe that they visually personify a place of secrets.  This is what Foster wants to get his readers thinking about.  He encourages a complex definition of the use of symbols in different writings and perspectives.