Subtle Meanings

[animeotakugirl]

Sometimes, when I read books, I kind of see the meaning behind them. For example, in C.S. Lewis's the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan the lion is really God, and Narnia might be taken as a Heaven of some sort; or at least the final place where all the characters who have ever appeared in the Chronicles finally end up can be taken as that. This is also kind of proved when Aslan says that soon Peter and Susan would be too old to enter Narnia again. After all, isn't that what Jesus said? That to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must have the heart of a child. In Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, he speaks of Dust and the end of God. If you have ever read this book, what is your opinion on this take of Heaven and Life after Death? If you have NOT read this book, what other books have you read that you think has an ulterior meaning?

[NightNinja666]

hmmm,indeed,i agree...

[arcrode]

How about Oliver Twist? ****ens is saying how an environment affects how people turn out (compare Rose and Nancy) and how the something-something laws suck and don't work.

[PuffSoul]

In a lot of books there is a Christ figure, kind of like Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings ( remember in the house of healing?). Religious themes are just kind of accidently put in books because it is just a type of character, or a type of situation that happens to be in , say, the bible.

[gillianvalkyrie]

I loved how Lyra started out as a brat who's against following conventional wisdom but instead choose her own path no matter how uncertain it is, through careful calculation. All the mistakes and experiences she got after wallowing thought the mud helped her figure out her own morality as opposed to just accepting the world around her. The biggest theme of the books (I've only read two) are how love makes us human and that the darkest darkness comes from within, not some stereotypical real bad guy like he whose name shall not be spoken.

[Persephone]

You mean like symbolism kinda stuff?
Or, what the author is trying to tell the reader, blahblahblah?

We talk about all that kinda stuff in English.
We just finished talking about that for some Emerson essays and The Scarlet Letter.

The Scarlet Letter is full of that symbolism and stuff.
Actually...anything written by Hawthorne is...

[darkaznangel17]

... if it's a good book, there's a good deal of symbolism and other stuff... and those meanings.. for you to figure out.. they could be put there .. on purpose or on accident.. depending on how strongly they feel or how they write... >_> well... yes i've read alot of books like that... and there are alot :D lets get reading!! haha

[DLD369]

Well, one of the most famous would be Lord of the Flies. A great book really. Ralph, one of the main characters, not only represents civilation and democracy, but also in a biblical sense, a follower of Christ. Where Simon, who isn't really mentioned as often as Ralph, is the true key to civilization, and in the biblical sense, is Christ. This is because he is the only one who knows that the "Beast" they talk about is not a physical Beast, but it is the fear, and evil inside of us all. Jack, who is another main character, symbolises evil, fear, communism/anarchy(either one would work) and also, in the biblical sense, the devil. Also to get off the the characters, which are easier to identify, i'll talk about some items. Like the conch shell, it symbolizes order, law and democracy. There's also the storm. The storm represents the chaos that has been hidden and slowly cooking, but as Simon is killed, the storm breaks out, and therefore symbolizes the chaos that is to come. The last thing i'll discuss, even though I could name many other things, will be the water flow. The flow of the water is going backwards, which symbolises how they go backwards, by that I mean how they started with a democracy and civilized, to becoming savages.


I know, many of you who haven't read it might be lost. For that I can only say....go read it.

[lurker]

what other books have you read that you think has an ulterior meaning?
Probably every fiction book I have ever read in my life.

And you're actually analyzing the book, which is neat when you see things like that, yeah? That's why I love my AP English class, because you see much more then what's just on the page and it causes you to think much differently.

Like someone said eailer, Hawthorne was very good at it, making books like The Scarlet Letter enjoyable, even if you can see the sybolism or not. This gets his real point across to the people who can see the symbolism, and just making it a fictional story for those who can't.