Abdullah Kabli-Symbolism-Vonnegut

In the Lodge chapter on symbolism, he talks about the different kinds of symbolism, like subjective and objective. He also discusses how symbolism can either be clear cut or can be hidden. For example, when making a map, symbols clearly represent everyday objects like streets or landmarks, but in literature and poetry, symbols often suggest other meanings rather than clearly representing something else. The excerpt from D.H. Lawrence had different kinds of symbolism in it, including using a train as a symbol for the mining industry since it was used for it and using a horse to represent nature since it was a part of it. He also uses more suggestive and metaphorical symbolism when having Gudrun watch Gerald dominate the horse. Lodge wrote that some say writers should put an object in the writing to first have a purpose before making it a symbol because if you are putting something in just for it to be a symbol it can get heavy-handed and too obvious and the reader can lose connections with the story.

Vonnegut perfects the use of symbolism in his works. He also uses different types of symbolism. An example of subjective symbolism in the short story Harrison Bergeron would be using the restraints to symbolize Communism because they are trying to make everyone equal by restraining the gifted people and hindering their skills to match the majority. They don’t try to bring the people up to the level of the gifted people so that they don’t become powerful and realize the hell they are living in and try to overthrow the government, which is just like communist governments and how they killed or imprisoned people who tried to overthrow them. This is also seen when Harrison is shot after removing his restraints on live TV. He was symbolically showing what society had the potential to become, and that potential was shot down. Using the restraints to symbolize communism is suggestive because it uses language to evoke feelings that rely on the reader’s knowledge of other things. The specific restraints are symbols themselves. For example, George’s radio constantly fills his ears and head with noise to disrupt his thoughts. This is a symbol for all of the unimportant things that distract us every day from what is important. The government tries to distract society from certain things by hyping up other things, just like George was distracted from focusing on his thoughts that may allow him to be more than mediocre.

Vonnegut also gives his symbols a purpose before making them symbols so even if you remove the symbolic aspect from the story, it does not change the story’s meaning. For example, in Harrison Bergeron, one of the restraints for the gifted are the masks for the ballerinas. Beautiful ballerinas had to wear masks to cover their beauty, and the prettier the ballerina was the uglier her mask was to balance that beauty. This wraps into the idea of communism and trying to equalize society. However, if the idea of communism is removed and the reader does not look for any deeper meaning, the mask still serves a purpose; it is just a less meaningful one. An example of objective symbolism in Vonnegut’s short story is the lifestyle the people live, which symbolizes a dystopia. This is a clear cut symbol which the reader realizes almost immediately.  

Lodge, David. The art of fiction. Vintage, 2011

Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron ; Palm Sunday: an Autobiographical Collage. Vintage, 1994.