A Setting as a Symbol
Places can become symbolic too
- A setting may become symbolic when it is, or comes to be, associated with abstractions such as emotions, ideologies and beliefs.
- The CED names the abstractions precisely: not "ideas" in general, but emotions, ideologies and beliefs.
- So a symbolic setting stands for something a person could feel, argue for, or hold.
Select all the abstractions the CED names for a symbolic setting.
A plot is not an abstraction a place can stand for.
"Is, or comes to be"
- The CED allows both routes, and they need different evidence.
- A setting that is already associated arrives with the association — you cite the association, not the text.
- A setting that comes to be built it inside this story — and that is the version you can prove line by line.
"Is, or comes to be, associated" allows...
A prior association is cited; a built one is proved line by line.
Some settings are nearly universal
- Over time, some settings have developed certain associations such that they almost universally symbolize particular concepts.
- A courtroom, a graveyard, a border, a sickroom.
- Note almost: a text can invoke the universal association in order to break it, and that break is the analysis.
Where does this setting's meaning come from?
Sort each case by how the association was formed.
"Almost universally" leaves room for a text to break the association.
A graveyard where nothing solemn happens uses its own association against itself.
A universal association can be invoked in order to be broken. The CED says almost universally — so a courtroom where nothing is judged, or a graveyard where nothing is mourned, is using the reader's expectation as material. Ask what the setting meant before this story used it.
Always ask what association the setting carried ____ the story used it.
The gap between that and what the story does is the meaning.
Breaking the association is the interesting case
- A graveyard where nothing solemn happens is using its own association against itself.
- The reader arrives expecting one thing and receives another — and the gap is the meaning.
- So always ask what association the setting carried before the story used it.
Put the symbolic-setting pass in order.
The two routes need different evidence, so the decision comes second.
A symbolic-setting pass
- Name the setting and the emotion, ideology or belief it is associated with.
- Decide: did it arrive with the association, or did the story build it?
- If it arrived with one, ask whether the story confirms it or breaks it.
The family gathers in a sickroom and discusses the sale of a field. Nobody looks at the bed. The setting arrives associated with mortality and attention, and the story uses that association to measure exactly how far the conversation has strayed — the symbol works by being ignored.
A setting may become symbolic when it is, or comes to be, associated with emotions, ideologies or beliefs. Some settings carry almost universal associations — which a text can confirm or break, and the break is the analysis. Ask what the setting meant before this story used it.