tmpDDE8

by The Anatomy of Story- 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (mobi)

  and repeat." Here's how it works: yon start with a feeling and create a symbol that will cause that feeling in the audience. You then repeat the symbol, changing it slightly.

  Feeling -> symbol -> feeling in the audience Changed symbol -> stronger feeling in the audience

  Symbols work on the audience in a very sneaky but powerful way. A symbol creates a resonance, like ripples in a pond, every time it appears. As you repeat the symbol, the ripples expand and reverberate in the minds of the audience often without their being consciously aware of it.

  You may recall that I said that the single biggest mistake in creating character is to see a character as a single, unique individual. That's the quickest way to make sure that none of your characters is a unique individual. Similarly, the single biggest mistake in creating a symbol is to see it as a single object.

  KEY POINT: Always create a web of symbols in which each symbol helps

  define the others.

  Let's step back for a moment and look once more at how the various subsystems of the story body fit together. The character web shows a deeper truth about how the world works by comparing and contrasting people. Plot shows a deeper truth about how the world works through a sequence of actions with a surprising but powerful logic. The symbol web shows a deeper reality about how the world works by referring objects, people, and actions to other objects, people, and actions. When the audience makes that comparison, even if partially or fleetingly, they see the deepest nature of the two things being compared.

  For example, to compare Tracy Lord to a goddess in The Philadelphia Story emphasizes her beauty and grace, but also her coldness and fierce sense of superiority to others. To compare the serene forest world of

  Lothlorien to the terrifying mountain world of Mordor in Ihe Lord of the Rings highlights the contrast between a sweet, life-giving community of equals and a fiery, death-dealing world of tyranny. To compare airplanes to horses in For Whom the Bell Tolls encapsulates how an entire culture valuing mechanized, impersonal force is replacing a horse culture valuing personal chivalry, loyalty, and honor.

  You create the symbol web by attaching symbols to any or all of these elements: the entire story, the structure, characters, theme, story world, actions, objects, and dialogue.

  STORY SYMBOLS

  At the level of the story idea or premise, a symbol expresses the fundamental story twists, the central theme, or the overall story structure and unifies them under one image. Let's look at some examples of story symbols.

  The Odyssey

  The central story symbol in the Odyssey is in the title itself. This is the long journey that must be endured.

  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  The central symbol here, by contrast, is not Huck's journey down the Mississippi; it is the raft. On this fragile, floating island, a white boy and a black slave can live as friends and equals.

  Heart of Darkness

  The symbolic heart of darkness of the title is the deepest part of the jungle, and it represents the physical, psychological, and moral endpoint of Marlow's trip up the river.

  Spider-Man, Batman, Superman

  These titles describe hybrid men with special powers. But the titles also imply characters who are divided within themselves and separated from the human community.

  The Cherry Orchard

  The cherry orchard suggests a place of timeless beauty but also one that is impractical and thus expendable in a real world that develops.

  The Scarlet Letter

  The scarlet letter starts literally as the symbol by which a woman is forced to advertise her immoral act of love. But it becomes the symbol of a different morality based on real love.

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

  The portrait of this artist begins with his symbolic name, Dedalus. Daedalus was the architect and inventor who built the labyrinth in Greek mythology. Connected with this name is the symbol of wings, which Daedalus built so that he and his son, Icarus, could escape the labyrinth. Many critics have commented that Joyce created the story structure of Portrait as a series of trial flights for his artistic hero to make his escape from his past and his country.

  How Green Was My Valley

  This story of a man recounting his childhood in a Welsh mining village has two main symbols: the green valley and the black mine. The green valley is the literal home of the hero. It is also the beginning of the overall story process and emotional journey by which the hero will move from green nature, youth, innocence, family, and home to a blackened, mechanized factory world, a shattered family, and exile.

  One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

  The two symbols of the title, the crazy place and the free spirit who flies, again suggest the overall process of the story of a fun-loving prisoner stirring up the patients in a mental institution.

  Network

  The network is literally a television broadcasting company and symbolically a web that traps all who are entangled within it.

  Alien

  An alien is the symbolic outsider, and as a story structure, it is the terrifying other who comes within.

  Remembrance of Things Past

  The key symbol is the madeleine cookie, which, when eaten, causes the storyteller to remember the entire novel.

  A Farewell to Arms

  The farewell to arms for the hero is desertion, the central action of the story.

  The Catcher in the Rye

  The catcher in the rye is a symbolic fantasy character the hero wants to be, and it is emblematic of both his compassion and his unrealistic desire to stop change.

  Symbol Line

  In coming up with a web of symbols that you can weave through your story, you must first come up with a single line that can connect all the main symbols of the web. This symbol line must come out of the work you have done on the designing principle of the story, along with the theme line and the story world you have already created.

  For practice, let's return one more time to the designing principles of the stories we discussed in Chapter 2, "Premise," this time to find the symbol line.

  Moses, in the Book of Exodus

  ■ Designing Principle A man who does not know who he is struggles to lead his people to freedom and receives the new moral laws that will define him and his people.

  ■ Theme Line A man who takes responsibility for his people is rewarded by a vision of how to live by the word of God.

  ■ Story World A journey from an enslaving city through a wilderness to a mountaintop.

  ■ Symbol Line God's word made physical via such symbols as the burning bush, plague, and the tablet of the Ten Commandments.

  Ulysses

  ■ Designing Principle In a modern odyssey through the city, over the course of a single day, one man finds a father and the other man finds a son.

  ■ Theme Line The true hero is the man who endures the slings

  and arrows of everyday life and shows compassion to another person in need.

  ■ Story World A city over the course of twenty-four hours, with each of its parts being a modern version of a mythical obstacle.

  ■ Symbol Line The modern Ulysses, Telemachus, and Penelope.

  Four Weddings and a Funeral

  ■ Designing Principle A group of friends experiences four Utopias (weddings) and a moment in hell (funeral) as they all look for their right partner in marriage.

  ■ Theme Line When you find your one true love, you must commit to that person with your whole heart.

  ■ Story World The Utopian world and rituals of weddings.

  ■ Symbol Line The wedding versus the funeral.

  Harry Potter Books

  ■ Designing Principle A magician prince learns to be a man and a king by attending a boarding school for sorcerers over the course of seven school years.

  ■ Theme Line When you are blessed with great talent and power, you must become a leader and sacrifice for the good of others.

  ■ Story World A school for wizards
in a giant magical medieval castle.

  ■ Symbol Line A magical kingdom in the form of a school. The Sting

  ■ Designing Principle Tell the story of a sting in the form of a sting, and con both the opponent and the audience.

  ■ Theme Line A little lying and cheating are OK if you bring down an evil man.

  ■ Story World A fake place of business in a run-down Depression-era city.

  ■ Symbol Line The trickery by which a person gets stung.

  Long Day's Journey into Night

  ■ Designing Principle As a family moves from day into night, its members are confronted with the sins and ghosts of their past.

  ■ Theme Line You must face the truth about yourself and others and forgive.

  ■ Story World The dark house, full of crannies where family secrets can be hidden away.

  ■ Symbol Line From increasing darkness to a light in the night.

  Meet Me in St. Louis

  ■ Designing Principle The growth of a family over the course of a year is shown by events in each of the four seasons.

  ■ Theme Line Sacrificing for the family is more important than striving for personal glory.

  ■ Story World The grand house that changes its nature with each season and with each change of the family that lives in it.

  ■ Symbol Line The house changing with the seasons.

  Copenhagen

  ■ Designing Principle Use the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to explore the ambiguous morality of the man who discovered it.

  ■ Theme Line Understanding why we act, and whether it is right, is always uncertain.

  ■ Story World The house in the form of a courtroom.

  ■ Symbol Line The uncertainty principle.

  A Christmas Carol

  ■ Designing Principle Trace the rebirth of a man by forcing him to view his past, his present, and his future over the course of one Christmas Eve.

  ■ Theme Line A person lives a much happier life when he gives to others.

  ■ Story World A nineteenth-century London countinghouse and three different homes—rich, middle-class, and poor—glimpsed in the past, present, and future.

  ■ Symbol Line Ghosts from the past, present, and future result in a man's rebirth at Christmas.

  It's a Wonderful Life

  ■ Designing Principle Express the power of the individual by showing what a town, and a nation, would be like if one man had never lived.

  ■ Theme Line A man's riches come not from the money he makes but from the friends and family he serves.

  ■ Story World Two different versions of the same small town in America.

  ■ Symbol Line Small-town America through history. Citizen Kane

  ■ Designing Principle Use a number of storytellers to show that a

  man's life can never be known. ■ Theme Line A man who tries to force everyone to love him ends up alone.

  ■ Story World The mansion and separate "kingdom" of a titan of America.

  ■ Symbol Line One man's life made physical—through such symbols as the paperweight, Xanadu, the news documentary, and the sled.

  SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS

  After defining the symbol line, the next step to detailing the symbol web is to focus on character. Character and symbol are two subsystems in the story body. But they are not separate. Symbols are excellent tools for defining character and furthering your story's overall purpose.

  When connecting a symbol to a character, choose a symbol that represents a defining principle of that character or its reverse (for example

  Steerforth, in David Cooperfield, is anything but a straightforward, upstanding guy). By connecting a specific, discrete symbol with an essential quality of the character, the audience gets an immediate understanding of one aspect of the character in a single blow.

  They also experience an emotion they associate from then on with that character. As this symbol is repeated with slight variations, the character is defined more subtly, but the fundamental aspect and emotion of the character becomes solidified in their minds. This technique is best used sparingly, since the more symbols you attach to a character, the less striking each symbol becomes.

  You might ask, "How do I choose the right symbol to apply to a character?" Return to the character web. No character is an island. He is defined in relation to the other characters. In considering a symbol for one character, consider symbols for many, beginning with the hero and the main opponent. These symbols, like the characters they represent, stand in opposition to one another.

  Also think about applying two symbols to the same character. To put it another way, create a symbol opposition within the character. This gives you a more complex character while still giving you the benefit of symbol. To sum up the process of applying symbol to character:

  1. Look at the entire character web before creating a symbol for a single character.

  2. Begin with the opposition between hero and main opponent.

  3. Come up with a single aspect of the character or a single emotion you want the character to evoke in the audience.

  4. Consider applying a symbol opposition within the character.

  5. Repeat the symbol, in association with the character, many times over the course of the story.

  6. Each time you repeat the symbol, vary the detail in some way.

  A great shorthand technique for connecting symbol to character is to use certain categories of character, especially gods, animals, and machines. Each of these categories represents a fundamental way of being as well as a level of being. Thus when you connect your individual character to one of these types, you give that character a basic trait and level that the audi-ence immediately recognizes. You can use this technique at any time, but it is found most often in certain genres, or storytelling forms, that are highly metaphorical, such as myth, horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

  Let's look at some stories that use the technique of symbolic characters.

  God Symbolism

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

  (by James Joyce; 1914) Joyce connects his hero, Stephen Dedalus, to the inventor Daedalus, who built wings to escape slavery in the labyrinth. This gives Stephen an ethereal quality and suggests his essential nature as an artistic man trying to break free. But then Joyce adds texture to that primary quality by using the technique of symbolic opposition within the character: he attaches to Stephen the opposing symbols of Daedalus's son, Icarus, who flies too close to the sun (too ambitious) and dies, and the labyrinth, which Daedalus also made, in which Stephen finds himself lost.

  The Godfather

  (novel by Mario Puzo, screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola,

  1972)

  Mario Puzo also connects his character to a god but highlights a very different aspect of God than Joyce does. Puzo's is the God the Father who controls his world and metes out justice. But he is a vengeful God. This is a man-God with a dictatorial power no mortal should have. Puzo also adds symbolic opposition within the character when he connects this God to the devil. Equating the normal opposites of sacred and profane is fundamental to this character and the entire story.

  The Philadelphia Story

  (play by Philip Barry, screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, 1940) Writer Philip Barry connects the hero, Tracy Lord, not just to aristocracy but to the concept of the goddess. Besides the "lordly" quality of her last name, both her father and her ex-husband refer to her as a "bronze goddess." She is both reduced and elevated by this symbolic attachment. The story turns on whether she will succumb to the worst aspects of "goddessness"-her cold, haughty, inhuman, unforgiving side or the best—a greatness of soul that will allow her, ironically, to find and be her most human and forgiving self.

  Other uses of the godlike hero include The Matrix (Neo = Jesus), Cool Hand Luke (Luke = Jesus), and A Tale of Two Cities (Sydney Carton = Jesus).

  Animal Symbolism

  A Streetcar Named Desire

  (by Tennessee Williams,
1947) In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams equates his characters to animals in a way that diminishes them but also grounds them in biologically driven behavior. Stanley is referred to as a pig, a bull, an ape, a hound, and a wolf to underscore his essentially greedy, brutal, and masculine nature. Blanche is connected to a moth and a bird, fragile and frightened. Williams repeats these symbols in various forms as the story plays out. Eventually, the wolf eats the bird.

  Batman, Spider-Man, Tarzan, Crocodile Dundee

  Comic book stories are modern myth forms. So not surprisingly, they literally equate their characters with animals from the very start. This is the most metaphorical, over-the-top symbol making you can do. Batman, Spider-Man, even Tarzan the Ape Man all call attention to their characters' connection to animals by their names, their physiques, and their dress. These characters don't just have certain animal-like traits, like Stanley Kowalski, that affect them in subtle but powerful ways. They are animal men. They are fundamentally divided characters, half man and half beast. The nasty state of nature of human life forces them to turn to some animal to benefit from its unique powers and to fight for justice. But the cost is that they must suffer from an uncontrollable division within and an insurmountable alienation from without.

  Equating a character with an animal can be very popular with an audience because it is a form of getting big (but not so big as to make the story dull). To be able to swing through the trees (Tarzan) or swing through the city (Spider-Man) or to have power over the animal kingdom (Crocodile Dundee) are dreams that lie deep in the human mind.

  Other stories that use animal symbols lor characters are Dances with Wolves, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and The Silence of the Lambs.

  Machine Symbolism

  Connecting a character to a machine is another broad way of creating a symbolic character. A machine character, or robot man, is usually someone with mechanical and thus superhuman strength, but it is also a human being without feeling or compassion. This technique is used most often in horror and science fiction stories where over-the-top symbols are part of the form and thus accepted. When good writers repeat this symbol over the course of the story, they do not add detail to it, as with most symbolic characters. They reverse it. By the end of the story, the machine man has proved himself the most human of all the characters, while the human character has acted like an animal or a machine.