We've read two major books this year; "A Farewell to Arms" and "Heart of Darkness." After discussion we've ended up with a hefty stack of symbols and themes for each book, so many so that I think we might be reading too far into the pieces...Obviously some things are meant to be symbols (Narnia and comes to mind) but I know when I write I don't agonize over what I want every character to represent; some are thrown in there just because they're fun.

In my own writing, I have a few symbols that I consciously place. The rest just, well, sort of happen. I fixate on an image or idea, and somehow it shows up in my writing. I've had people read my work and say, "Hey, I thought it was really cool how you used the giraffe as a symbol for your MC's oppression." Huh? I think. I didn't intend the giraffe to be anything other than a creature loping across the serengeti. To a certain extent, it's an instinctive urge for people to assign meanings to objects.

I personally love hunting out symbols in stores. Maybe they weren't all intentional. Maybe sometimes it's stretching the work. But I had a great time with it in HS English.

To answer your question, it's not like I have a formula for symbols. Nor, I assume, did Hemmingway or Conrad, or Golding. I think most times writers stumble on symbols, or readers unearth them.

For example, The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is symbolism. It isn't about what the VOMWEW "represents"--it is about all the people who respond to him. On the other hand, Aslan of the Narnian Chronicles specifically represents a Christ figure, and the scenes with Aslan are mostly about that Christ figure.

I personally think that allegory should be done very sparingly. If you overdo it, it turns the story into a transparent analogy, which is far less interesting than an inventive story. So I would only use such a symbol when it was a very salient element of what I was trying to accomplish, and I would avoid other temptations to it.

Symbolism uses symbols sparingly by its nature. A story with more than one symbol of that kind, I think, is stretching the coherence of it.

None of this is gospel, of course. I'm just giving my amateur advice. (You get what you pay for.)

I didn't plan this, but discovered it when the woman, tired from climbing a lot of stairs, leaned on the wall.

In Cool Hand Luke there is a lot of Christian and Christ symbolism. Even the final moment when . . .

SPOILER ALERT - although I have a hard time thinking people haven't seen this one . . . .

Luke is flat on his back with his arms spread out. Nice crucifiction image with his death.

End Spoiler . . .

Why is it good? Because you don't really notice it. Was it intentional? You bet it was.

Do I use Symbolism? No, mostly because when I do it feels forced.

Do I use a theme? YES.

Frankly, so few authors get away with using symbolism successfully, that I don't see it as worth messing with. Like a few others have said, if you have a strong and consistent theme or themes, then symbols should appear on their own for every reader. The really good symbols in literature have become cliches or tropes already, and most of them still stand the test of time. Leave the overt and super-creative symbolism to comic books and poetry, I say.

Then again, maybe you really like symbolism, I'm just not that kind of reader ^_^

If I ever get published and achieve great success (unlikely, but that's the goal, right?), I'll be sure to release a definitive statement before I die on the meaning of each character/device/etc as I intended it. The reader will be welcome to interpret it differently, of course, but that way I can die knowing that in two hundred years, some academic pinhead won't be over-analyzing why I bothered to mention the wooden spoon on page 233 or whatever.

The wooden spoon obviosly represents the powerless feeling the mother has due to needing a weapon to create as much fear of discipline as the father. :-P

Interpreting is fun,

Now I understand that the reading experience is a unique journey for each person and that it's all right for different readers to see different things in a book -- even if it's something the author didn't think he put there.

As for my own writing...well, let's take the novel that's actually going to be published in two weeks, "Touch of Fate."

I didn't consciously put in any symbols. So far, no one's suggested that there are any, but only a handful of people have read it so far.

I did consciously put in one major theme. It wasn't in the first draft -- I realized the book was trying to have that theme and I included it in the next rewrite. During the third (and final) rewrite, I noticed several smaller themes cropping in almost without my noticing.

But who's to say there aren't other themes in there? Or maybe there's a reader out there who doesn't even "get" my main theme. Does that mean they were wrong or not paying attention or that the book meant something different to them?

The trouble with English class is they try to attach the same meaning for everyone.