Think of a physical object from a story you’ve read or a movie you’ve seen that has held some level of symbolic importance. What was the object and what story/movie was it from? What did it symbolize? Why was it so important to the story?
11 thoughts on “Response to “The Role of Physical Objects””
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Last semester, in ENG 2100, I watched a movie called “The Usual Suspects.” In the movie, a detective was trying to solve a crime and arrest the crime lord, “Keyser Soze.” The bulletin board in the movie was one of the symbolic items in the movie. It symbolized the lies and fake stories the real Keyser Soze made up. The bulletin board helped Verbal, a character in the story, create all his fabrications when a detective brought him up for questioning. The truth was staring the detective in the face the whole time and the last scene shows him finally figuring it out by looking at the bulletin board. It was important to the story because it kept the detective and us guessing the entire movie, but in reality, we have been staring at the truth. It is a major factor that led to the twist revealed at the end.
A recent movie a saw was “Bird Box”. The movie was about how these supernatural “monsters” made people commit suicide when they looked at the monsters. Meanwhile, this woman with two kids tried to cross a river in look for a place where they believed there was no danger at all. In the movie to avoid seeing the monsters, some of the characters are blindfolded. I believe the blindfolds in this movie symbolizes the idea of protection. This idea is important to the movie because one meaning of the movie is how certain issues in the real world (in this case also symbolized by the monsters) are driving people crazy, and this protection that is created by the blindfold represents that we are safer without these issues.
One of the few movies I still remember watching is Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the most important object is this scientist’s lab. The lab is necessary for the Wasp and her father to find her mother. While there is this other superhuman that needs the lab to be able to fix her or she will just disappear. It was just important because the lab would mean one person could reunite their family and the other will continue to live. It was important because there was so much fighting done over the lab. In the end an agreement is made so that the lab could help both sides.
The books and movies of Harry Potter, both described the scar in Harry’s forehead. This can be considered a symbol of his dark past when his parents died protecting him from Voldemort. The symbol is important to the story as it explains the importance of his character and how others react to him. The scar helps others identify Harry as the important figure who can stop Voldemort, and this identification either makes others close to him or against him.
In my sophomore year of high school we discussed about a book called “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger where the main character Holden Caulfield wears this red hunting hat. Throughout the book Holden talks about his broken family dynamic and his depression. The red hunting hat symbolize protection and brings out a child like in him. In the book Holden goes through varies breaking points and the hat helps him overcome these critical moments. It gives him a sense of security in a way that guards him from the “phony” outside world. In the end of the novel there is a scene where Holden gives his hat to his younger sister Phoebe to wear and it symbolize Holden’s need to protect Phoebe’s innocence from the outside world. In my opinion I think that the red hunting hat plays a major role in the book because it molds Holden’s character and it gives him an eccentric personality.
A book that uses symbolism is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main symbol throughout the story is the scarlet letter worn by Hester Prynne. She becomes an outcast to society because she had an illegitimate child. Hester was forced to live in a cabin somewhat away from town and have the letter “A” sown into her clothing. The letter “A” stood, among other things, for adulterer. As the story progresses, the meaning of the letter “A” changes when Hester and society see her differently. She becomes proud to wear the letter. It’s an important reminder that one can change how people look at you.
In high-school, I read the novel “God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. This book was about two people from opposing sides of the caste system in India. They were known as the touchable and the untouchable. This classification was determined by birth and could not be altered. Thus, people from conflicting sides were not allowed to interact with one another. However, Roy presents a developing relationship between two characters of both classifications: Velutha and Ammu. Roy uses the object of a river to symbolize the divide that separates their love by extensively describing how the touchables must not go in the river as the untouchables are always in there. At the end of the novel, Velutha dies in the middle of the river. This highlights the symbolism of the river because Velutha’s pursuit of Ammu across the river is the reason for his death. Furthermore, the river is an adequate example of the barrier present within the caste system of India.
“1984” by George Orwell, a novel I finished recently, held an abundance of symbolism in its seemingly everyday images. In the dystopia setting of Oceania, Wilson and other characters rely on rations of “victory gin” to help cope with their (hidden) discontentment with the society they live in. Freedom of speech and action against the “Big Brother” regime (the ruling government of Oceania) is strictly forbidden and punishable by death. Subsequently, characters like the protagonist numb themselves to the injustices of society through alcoholism. Thus, the mass consumption victory gin is not only representative of the silent protesting of the everyday man in Oceania, but also the citizens’ willingness to become ignorant of the tyrannical government they have come accustomed to.
Asu Mare is a movie about an upcoming TV star named Cachin who is poor and falls in love with a wealthy woman. He lies about his social background and pretends to be rich. However, every time Cachin goes to visit her, he has to take a bus. This bus is symbolic of his poor living conditions and a remainder of the world that he comes from, so he secretly takes the bus to see this woman. When they had a fight and the truth was revealed, the lady tried to find him and she had to take the same old bus that he took. This suggests that she is entering his world and accepting who he is.
Recently I watched an online series called Wayne. It was about a teenager named Wayne and his girlfriend Del. The story followed them as Wayne is told by his dying father that the only thing he wish he could’ve left him was his old Pontiac Firebird that was stolen by Wayne’s Stepdad. The entire story follows Wayne and Del as they go on this rampage from Massachusetts all the way to Florida just to take the car back from his Stepdad and brother. We learn why the car is so important, it was his last connection to his father and it was also a way to see his mother since she abandoned him years prior. We learn that it was less about the car and more about Wayne being able to fulfill this last request of his father.
In the novel “The Little Prince”, the prince fell in love with a rose. It was a symbol of love, beauty and femininity. The prince did not immediately perceive the rose’s true inner essence of beauty but was captivated by the rose’s appearance and deceptive nature. However, when the little prince encountered more roses, he refuted his own idea that his rose was unique and that its deceptive nature had lied to him to gain love and care. When the fox appeared in the novel, it taught the prince that by being tamed, something can go from being ordinary to be special and unique. The rose embodies the fox’s notion that love comes from investing in other people and beauty becomes beautiful when it’s filled with meaning. The rose was important to the story because it shows that giving is more important than what the other gives back in return, which was one of the prevalent themes in this novel.