
Is that a symbol? Yes, it is. In “Is that a symbol,” Thomas C. Foster tries to get everyone who is always searching for a concrete meaning of everything to understand that in literature, there is never one single meaning for anything. It’s all based upon your own knowledge and your own personal experiences, but if that’s true, why is it that everyone struggles with the follow up question “Of what?” once they determine something is a symbol? Thomas C. Foster tries to teach us that there is no right answer in literature by explaining the use of symbols, teaching us how to find a symbol, and explaining the complexity of symbols.

Thomas C. Foster uses symbols to show us how we are supposed to think in literature and English. We wouldn’t have literature or English classes if everything had one concrete meaning.  Novels would only be stories or tales instead of “a network of meanings and significations that permits a nearly limitless range of possible interpretations” (19).  As a reader it’s our job to use “questions, personal experiences, and preexisting knowledge” (19) to figure out what we think something stands for. The problem so many students have is that they are looking for the right meaning, when no two students have had the same personal experiences or upbringing. There is no single correct answer for meaning, but there’s a unique meaning for everything for every individual.  

Whenever something is determined to be a symbol, there’s always the follow up question “Of what?”. Readers and students struggle with the “Of what?” question because they believe that there is a correct/incorrect answer. The search for the meaning of a symbol has to come on a personal level though, because you’re searching for what it means to you, not what it means to your professor, or what it means to the rest of the class.

Symbols also aren’t limited to only one meaning at a time. Foster uses the Mississippi river in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) to show us that an object can have multiple meanings at once. At the beginning of the story, the river floods killing livestock and people, including Huck’s father. The river also acts as Huck’s escape to freedom, he and Jim can travel with “relative isolation from land and detection” (21), but at the risk of doing so on a makeshift raft. The river already symbolizes danger, safety, and the search for freedom. The search for freedom can actually be taken multiple ways too. Huck and Jim are following the current to freedom, just like the river itself flows to the freedom of the open ocean. Also, throughout Huck and Jim’s journey down the river Huck matures and grows into a young adult, so the river also symbolizes Huck’s transition into adulthood.

Thomas C. Foster then goes on to explain that in the previous pages he asserted meaning for “the caves and rivers and symbols with considerable authority” (22). He mentions this to show that he has a strong understanding of what each symbol means because they are his own personal meaning. It goes back to the beginning; a symbol means exactly what you think it means. It all goes back to you as the reader making the connection between the text, prior knowledge, and your personal experiences.

By digging deep into symbols Thomas C. Foster has also shown what it means to close read. As a reader it’s your job to try to understand what the author is trying to express, and the author is always expressing more than one. You have to ask questions, look at what the author has said up to that point, what’s currently happening, and most importantly, what do you feel like the author means. Foster says it best, “much of what we think about literature, we feel first” (23).

Thomas C. Foster also wants us to see what reading literature consists of. Foster says, “reading literature is a highly intellectual activity, but it also involves affect and instinct to a large degree” (23). He compares it to dogs swimming. Dogs are instinctual swimmers but they don’t hit the water understanding what to do with those instincts. The more they exercise those instincts, the better and quicker it works. Reading is the same way, the more you practice reading and reading close the easier it will be to see what the author is trying to express. Reading is a combination of the reader’s imagination and creative intelligence and the authors imagination and creative intelligence. We always give authors all the credit, but reading is a combination of the authors creative spirit and the readers imagination. 

Thomas C. Foster accomplishes multiple goals in “Is that a Symbol”. He explains symbolism and meaning, mentions what it means to read closely, what reading literature actually is, and that readers need to try to relate to the author and text to fully understand what the author is trying express. The ultimate goal that Foster wanted to accomplish though is for readers to be able to understand that reading is solely about relating to the author and the text one on one, and as an individual, we bring our own backstory, made up of our own beliefs, personal experiences, and personal knowledge which will influences how we understand the reading. Foster chose to use the topic of symbolism because “individuality is never more clear than in the matter of symbolism” (21). Figuring out if something is a symbol is easy, everything’s a symbol for something. Figuring out what it means isn’t, so when the follow-up question “Of what?” is asked, Foster says it best, “trust your instincts, pay attention to how you feel about the text. It probably means something” (24). 
