Writing Fiction: Symbolism and All That. Maybe you never got anything out of your literature courses except a strong dislike for “analyzing a story to death.”
Sometimes the symbolic interpretation of a story or poem can seem pretty far-fetched. Nevertheless, as soon as you start writing, you start writing on some kind of symbolic level. Maybe you’re not conscious of it, but it’s there: in your characters, their actions, the setting, and the images. (Some writers are very powerful symbolists, but don’t realize it; that’s why authors are often poor critics of their own work.) You may argue that your writing simply comes out of your own life and experience, and has nothing to do with “literary” writing. How to Write a Symbolic Story. Create your own symbols and your own cosmology and apply this to your story.
As the storyteller you are essentially God to your creation, and the symbols you create hold whatever meaning you choose to apply to it. This is something that you may not feel confident enough to do at first, depending on how much writing you do, but you hold all the cards when you are telling a story and this is empowering. Character archetypes.