Potential+Symbols

Finding symbols in literature is difficult, but I think you’re better at it than you realize. That is why I ask you to list “potential symbols.” I don’t ask you to have it figured out - to know what the something greater is that the symbol stands for. I simply ask that you be attentive enough to recognize and identify something important. Here then, I want us to create a list sharing what you recognize as important - something you suspect might carry the weight of being a symbol.

List the symbol, a line where you see it appear in the text, and if you can think of anything, a brief explanation of what you think its significance might be.


 * I think the fact that Finny starts a club for people who want to "better" themselves for the war before they have to be able to be recruited. This is a symbol of the leadership and dictation people can have over other people.

The following list was created in class on February 21, right as most people were about to begin chapter 11.


 * ~ The potential symbol ||~ What it might represent ||
 * **the Super Suicide Society** ||  ||
 * **the beaver dam** || smells like poop ||
 * **Quackenbush** ||  ||
 * **the butt room** || * the dirt, the underside of a place - where insincerity is expressed at Devon
 * Gains significance b/c after being here, Gene feels some sort of relief from his guilt in pushing Finny
 * a place of calmness - going here helps the boys calm their nerves & fears ||
 * **Finny** || * peace
 * leader ||
 * **the tree** || * friendship - a place that bonds the boys together
 * When one fell, the bonds began to break
 * bravery
 * preparation - though the one NOT to jump was the only one to enlist in Army
 * MENTAL preparation - showing that the one who didn't jump wasn't mentally prepared
 * Gene's feelings toward Finny at the beginning
 * fun & games (of summer)
 * the war
 * jumping is like the passage into manhood - growing up ||
 * **summer** || * peace ||
 * **winter** || * war
 * fallen hope
 * uneasiness ||
 * **Leper Lepellier** || * craziness from the war
 * bravery
 * during the protective summer's "separate peace" he was kind & nice, but in the winter, with the war, he broke - showing the craziness of war
 * like a bridge between Devon and the war ||
 * **the war** || * trouble
 * depression - caused depression in the lives of those who did & would have to enlist
 * courage - had to have it to enlist
 * fallen hope ||
 * **blitzball** || * fun & games ||
 * **Gene** || * self-consciousness ||
 * **Finny's broken leg** || * the summer peace breaks when Finny's leg breaks
 * Possibly the friendship; when Finny falls out of the tree thier friendship is broken. As It heals thier friendship heals. ||
 * **Devon** || * insulation from the war ||
 * **blitzball** || * fun & games ||
 * **Gene** || * self-consciousness ||
 * **Finny's broken leg** || * the summer peace breaks when Finny's leg breaks
 * Possibly the friendship; when Finny falls out of the tree thier friendship is broken. As It heals thier friendship heals. ||
 * **Devon** || * insulation from the war ||
 * **Devon** || * insulation from the war ||