Secrets of Writing: Symbolism and Icons

Another method that adds resonance to a story and helps to amplify the themes and the premise is symbolism. It creates a resonance in the mind of the Audience that helps establish mood, feeling, and emotion. It plays with our subconscious in ways that can achieve

Symbolism can be used in a variety of ways, both visually and subtextually.

All human beings respond to symbolism. It seems to be a universal language that all people understand. Psychologists like Carl Jung have theorized that we have a collective unconscious and certain things are known to us all. Symbolism is our collective way of interpreting things. A heart is often represented as a shape that looks nothing like a real heart. The sun is usually drawn as a circle with lines coming out of it. But symbolism isn’t limited to icons.  We understand some things as symbolism because they evoke a feeling in us. They represent something to us. The Jack O’Lantern means Halloween to us. The Turkey means Thanksgiving. The Christmas Tree, Christmas. A rattle or pacifier translates to “baby”. A man in a suit, carrying a briefcase, can mean “father” or “executive”. A woman in an apron can mean “mother”.

The use of symbolism can be used to foreshadow events, as we saw in the last chapter. They can also be used as a form of commentary on the story. It can be used as a counterpoint to events in the scene. Or it can be used to amplify the message or tone of the scene.

Symbolic Charge

When symbolism is used to evoke an archetypal feeling in the work, this is known as symbolic charge. Just as symbolic characterization makes a character look like what they’re supposed to be, symbolic charge uses symbolism to enhance the feel of the story so it matches an archetypal model you’ve chosen.

In the movie BRAZIL, papers were always in evidence, floating on a breeze or stacked to the ceiling, suggesting a bureaucracy. The use of air tubes all over the place added with sounds resembling a growling stomach gave the symbolic charge that the people lived in the bowels of some enormous creature. So the symbolic charge of this film gave you the feeling that everyone had been swallowed by a totalitarian beast.

The symbolic choices were logical to the milieu and didn’t seem out of place, yet they also served to make the story resonate with a feeling which enhanced the work. It really made you feel the nightmarish quality of the world, even though you could laugh at its excesses.

Symbolism works best when it’s integrated into the story in a non-obtrusive way. It should work on the subconscious of the audience, not hit them over the head.

Icons

When symbolism is boiled down to its purest, most representational form, you are left with the icon. Icons are something we’re all familiar with. From the stop sign to the smiley face button, icons are a common form of communication in our post-industrial society.

They have a strong power on a psychological level because they have immediate recognition value. People know what an icon stands for when they see it. And depending on the emotional charge that icon has for them, it can be used in powerful ways.

The American Flag is often used to promote patriotism. The cross to promote Christianity. Santa Claus to promote Christmas. If you choose a icon with the right symbolic power for what you want to say, you can pass a message onto the audience without any elaboration. If they see a preacher standing before a cross, they feel the religious resonance. And if you invert that cross and put the guy a hooded robe, they know what that means, too.

Icons are a great form of communication. But you should be careful about sending mixed messages with them. If you want to use an icon to say something different for ironic effect, you need to make it clear.

The smiley face icon with a bullet hole between the eyes is a good example of mixed message icons. It tells you, basically, that the person displaying this icon hates cheerful people.

One of the reasons icons have such a powerful charge is that simplicity is easy to understand. It allows the mind to complete the picture. Just as prose allows the mind to evoke an image of its own. When you give someone the minimum amount of information to understand a concept, their mind has the freedom to extrapolate and build on the idea. The more information you provide, the less room for thought, because you start fencing in the realm of probabilities. The receiver also has to absorb more data.

Icons provide clear cut messages. just don’t use them to muddy the waters and you’ll do fine.

<< Back to main