Anything could be a symbol. However, the true problem comes in interpretation.  Thomas Foster analyzes this dilemma at its crux.  In dissecting this “Is that a symbol?”, it is crucial to understand that his intended audience was other literary teachers, not students.  At the center of this problem is how one person interprets something can seem like another language to someone else’s interpretation.  Something that one reader sees as a home can be a foreign land of abuse to someone else.  Foster demonstrates this through the use of a cave.  He employs use of the word multiple times, but every time it means something different.  The cave can mean solace or a home, or perhaps it is the dark unknown and symbolizes betrayal, which both could be right or both could be the wrong meaning of cave. Foster furthers this point by using three examples in which the third combines the two previous examples that are opposites.  According to Foster everything is a symbol which could have a number of meanings, yet none of them have any manner of correctness or incorrectness although they will get examined and debated by readers for all time even though Foster says that one meaning is not right or wrong.

Foster uses the word cave to multiple effects throughout his piece.  In one of his earlier uses there is a lot of mystery and unknown surrounding the word cave.  His use of the word cave in this instance is also linked to betrayal and deceit.  His first use “She is in shock and utterly convinced that she was assaulted in the cave and that Aziz must have been her assailant” (19).  Foster takes this first use, and the whole first passage, from the novel A Passage to India. This is a very challenging articulation of the word cave because it is not familiar to us.  Most humans do not like the idea of conflict or the idea of not knowing.  The reader is given no insight or facts to what really happens.  The reader must decide whether or not to believe Adela.  Humans are famous for not liking what they do not know.  From the very beginning there is mystery surrounding the caves.  Aziz is a renowned expert on the Marabar caves, however, upon further inspection he knows nothing about them.  Then in this specific example of cave the reader is given no hints or clues to what really happens.  There are no witnesses to support or refute the claim of Adela.  Perhaps she was assaulted, or perhaps she made the whole story up.  There is no concrete way of knowing which is challenging for humans because the human brain like facts and knowing the truth.  Even if this may not be the capital “T” truth it is still the truth to that person.  Therefore, a decision must be made on what the cave means.  It could be a symbol for deceit, betrayal, or darkness or perhaps all three. On the other hand, it could be a symbol for total and complete nothingness.  No one reader can know for sure what Foster meant by using the word cave.  Inside the cave itself there is a vast darkness and absolute nothingness, which supports both contrasting ideas of what the cave represents in this context.  

The first use is so interesting because it ironically demonstrates Foster’s thesis in a textual form.  Foster argues that one may be certain they know the meaning of a symbol in a text, or even that they understand the text wholly.  The reader is like Adela.  They seem certain that they know what is happening in a story and what it means, in her case that she was assaulted.  However, there is no true evidence to support or deny the claims of the reader in their hypothesis or the claims of Adela.  In fact if he or she were to look at the evidence it may leave them with more questions than answers.  This is what makes a piece of literature timeless.  Many or even all readers can interpret a story to mean one thing, and one reader could have a perverse view of the story which makes literature so intriguing.  

 Foster then employs the use of the word cave in a completely different context.  His second example of the cave is “Our earliest ancestors, or those who had weather issues, lived in caves” ( 19).  This use of cave as a symbol is dramatically different than the first instance.  In this case Foster is referring to the cave as a place of solace or home.  This is a much more comforting use of the word cave.  It is very familiar to us.  Even though we do not live in caves today, we all know that at some point our most archaic ancestors did.  Even if we cannot personally relate to this we have all homes of our own.  Almost any individual can relate so living in some structure and making a home out of it. Clearly this is a way we connect with our more primitive side, or at least this is a suggestion by Foster.  Caves at their simplest level allowed for humans to live.  Without them humanity would have died out sometime before the Neolithic revolution.  The word cave in this context is synonymous with the modern day home of the reader.

Foster then uses the word cave again as a combination of the two earlier uses that have been analyzed. His final example of the cave is “At the far end of the spectrum, we might be reminded of Plato, who in the “Parable of the cave” section of the republic (fourth century B.C.) gives us an image of the cave as consciousness and perception”  (19). This use of the word cave combines elements of both of the earlier uses.  When all three men are chained up the cave provides a place of solace for them.  Even though they are not really perceiving the truth, it is their truth.  This is much like Adela in the cave.  Even though we cannot be sure she got assaulted, she believes that fact to be true.  However, once one prisoner is free he comes to realize that everything he believed to be true is in fact false.  To be able to actually see things it strained his eyes and he had to adjust to the light that he now saw.  Initially he can only see shadows, but eventually he perceives reality in its true form.  However, when he tries to go free the other two prisoners they want nothing to do with this.  They believe he is, in fact, the unintelligent one of the three.  Even though, he was truly the enlightened one.  Socrates compares himself and other philosophers to the man who was freed.  Whether he was in fact enlightened is a matter of interpretation, but like the free man he was not welcomed by his society years into his teaching. Eventually, even though it somewhat it was his own fault, he was sentenced to death by a horrible lethal poison.  In this way he is like the free man.  Someone who was above the others, or at least thought he was, but is punished for this knowledge that he tries to impart on his fellow man.  

On one hand there is the two prisoners whose whole existence is based on shadows projected on a wall.  This is much like in the case where Adela does not know the whole truth, or certainly does not know for sure that she was assaulted and that Aziz is guilty.  Despite this, that is the truth they both believe.  In the case of the two prisoners their truth is merely a fabrication of shadows. In the case of Adela we cannot be sure what is the truth.  Much like the cave men the cave in Plato’s story is a place of solace and it is their home. Even if it is a miserable life today having the cave is better than no cave.  However, eventually the cave men leave the cave and civilization evolved into its current state.  Man became enlightened just like the freed prisoner.

All three examples of the word cave certainly seem to be different. While there is some overlap between the third use and the earlier two, they are still three completely separate entities.  

At least in my case, when examined as individual pieces they are clearly different symbols.  Plato’s cave has a different meaning than the caveman’s cave, and both of those caves are different than Adela’s cave.  However, one reader could interpret all three meanings as life because that is what it represents to that individual.  Other readers might say he or she is wrong, but according to Foster there is no right or wrong interpretation only an interpretation. It is plausible that he employs the multiple uses of the word cave to appear different but beyond the surface are the exact same. It is also just as likely, all things being equal that Foster employs the use of cave to be three examples completely different from each other.  To that question only Foster knows the answer.  My cave could be different from every other person to read this essay by Foster.  Each reader will have a different interpretation of the uses of the word cave in this essay which can be simultaneously right and wrong interpretations of the symbols.  However, Foster is able to link two interpretations that seem to have no relationship by employing his third example.