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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42956
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42956
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Can a banana ever be just a banana?

Yes. I mention food in my writing, but not symbolically. In fact I almost never use any symbolism in my writing, at least not consciously.

**_[Must I always be aware of the cultural implications of certain foods?]_**

Not **_always_** , and as other answers point out, you probably cannot know every implication. Some reader may email you and ask _"What is the symbolism of Henry eating Caesar's last meal right before he dies in battle?"_ The answer is, I am certain I did not _know_ Caesar's last meal was mutton chops, no particular symbolism was intended. Random coincidence.

But if you know something, or learn something before publication (like from a beta reader), and in that light your story is either damaged or enhanced, you might change the food to something less symbolic, or exploit the symbolism as you see fit.

For myself, as a discovery writer, I am so immersed in imagining the scene and picking out details to describe and managing other elements, I don't have the time or inclination to engage in "meta" writing or "thoughtful" writing of symbols, themes, or parallels, or whatever.

When Alice is homesick and imagining the iron bridge at home, it is because that is beautiful scenery and iconic of her childhood home. The iron bridge is just a bridge over a river, not a symbol of a solution, it doesn't foreshadow any kind of metaphorical "bridging". I suppose it is a _weak_ symbol, because for her it is the doorway to her home town, crossing that bridge is the instant she left home, and she longs to be back, and it is a "symbol" in that sense, her next step on that bridge (if she has one) will be the moment she has returned home.

If somebody tells me all three times Alice thinks of the bridge, somebody in her party dies: Okay, I need to fix that, that was unintentionally repetitive.

If I or somebody else notices I have inadvertently created a pattern, I will either make it more obvious, or scramble it. I really just want to tell a story, I disagree with the notions of "symbolism" and "depth" and even "theme" as necessary components of a story. At best, they are enhancements, which I lump under "cohesiveness" and "consistency" (of characters and setting).

I do like foreshadowing, and will look for opportunities to inject it on my first full revision of a completed story. (I can't before then, I don't know how the story will turn out!)

But symbolism and depth and even "theme" I find tiresome, I am never looking for it in a story, so I am not entertained by it. If somebody points it out later, it might be an interesting note, but if I didn't notice it **_when I was reading it_** then it doesn't make the story any better!

It is like when somebody has to explain a joke I didn't get -- That doesn't make it good joke, a good joke makes me laugh, it doesn't make me think, "Why would you think that is funny?"

The same goes for unintentional patterns. If somebody tells me my theme is X, but one of the big scenes violates that theme, I will revisit it, and may rewrite it to fit better.

I am not a prima donna writer; I **do** intentionally avoid emotional attachment to my scenes, I am also a big believer in "kill your darlings". Pace is extremely important, and things that interrupt the immersed reverie of reading (by content, by being too long and thus boring, by being incongruous, by distracting the reader with unintentional symbolism) has to go.

For example, I know my sex scenes are too long. So I write them, and then figure out how to cut them down to what I have learned is an acceptable length.

Every scene "does a job" of advancing the story, but if I discover it is not performing well, there has to be a better way of getting the job done smoothly, with a shorter scene, or a different scene, or distributing the job among multiple scenes, or something. There has to be a way to communicate the point without breaking reader immersion.

Original score: 4