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Symbolism Of The Thing In The Forest Byatt

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Symbolism in The Thing in the Forest In the story “The Thing in the Forest” by A.S. Byatt, the two protagonists, Penny and Primrose, are on an almost forced journey towards adulthood, after being separated from their mothers. Their imaginations save them from the tortures and terrors of a world in distress, keeping their innocence for as long as they can. An interesting thing about the story is that it is a fairy tale that provides any type of reprieve from real world problems and then replaces the realistic issues with archetypes. This story is filled with so many great symbolic moments. At the start of the story the author creates a very vague statement that interest the reader: “Penny and Primrose, saw or believed they saw a thing in the forest.”(Byatt 324). Although this statement is vague, it keeps the reader wanting to know more. A form of symbolism used is that the narrator makes a distinction between a child’s mind and an adult’s mind. How would you say to your child, “I am sending you away, because enemy bombs are falling out of the sky, but I myself am staying here…” When the two girls are …show more content…
The Thing symbolizes fear for the little girls and the psychological damage and destruction that is going on in the war. It’s described as everything evil and symbolizes what could be a painful adulthood that is riddled with ruin and decay. The picture that is painted for the reader is a creature that was made of “rank meat, and decaying plants” that was also made of “man-made materials, bits of wire netting, foul dishcloths, wire-wool full of pan scrubbings, and rusty nuts and bolts. Another peculiar trait of this thing is that when the Thing would rampage through the forest, if it encountered an obstacle that it couldn’t completely destroy while on its journey, it allowed itself to be sliced through. The Thing’s blind and unrelenting rampage symbolizes the war and ruin that adults face every day during this

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