Dear Writer,
Last week, I started talking to you about including themes in your stories. If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’ve already bought into why that’s important, so I can skip that lecture and launch into more strategies for developing themes. Let’s talk about symbols.
I can hear you rolling your eyes (don’t ask me how that’s audible). It’s fine, I get it. 100% you had an English teacher ask you, “What do you think x represents?”
Interpreting symbols in other people’s stories can be a strange thing. You have to wonder if the author ever meant for people to examine the blue curtains or the sparrow flying by so closely. But just because an author didn’t mean for something to take on the power of a symbol doesn’t lessen the power of said symbol. I wholeheartedly believe in “happy little accidents” and in the synchronicity of small authorial choices that create literary resonance. So don’t worry if you’re picking up on an unintentional symbol. Your gut (not your English teacher) will tell if there’s true depth there.
With all that being said, you, the writer, can choose to play with symbols on purpose. How to take something concrete and connect it to something abstract in a way that is powerful and highlights your themes? Let’s look at a case study.
Sting
Of course, I want to talk about Lord of the Rings, but I will skip over the lowest hanging fruit (the One Ring) and instead go to Bilbo’s sword, Sting, especially the role it plays in The Hobbit. For such a well-known weapon, the little blade doesn’t get a ton of screentime, but it’s important whenever it appears and symbolizes something integral to one of the themes of the story.
Bilbo acquires Sting, unnamed for now, after encountering three trolls: his first dangerous experience after setting out with Thorin and Co. Bilbo doesn’t play much of a role in actually defeating the monsters, but this is his first attempt to step into his role as burglar and prove he’s more than a “grocer.” I think it’s significant that this is when Bilbo gets his weapon. Sting tends to be connected to a lot of “firsts” for Bilbo. (Sidenote: Tolkien echoes the motif of adventurers setting out without weapons and finding them along the way in Fellowship of the Ring. I’ve wanted to explore this more. Let me know if you have any ideas about that.)
The next time we see Sting is in the goblin tunnels. When the party is captured, the little sword isn’t taken from Bilbo because it was tucked into his breeches. Bilbo himself had forgotten about it, and only rediscovered it after he’d been knocked out and left behind as the dwarves and Gandalf made their escape. He draws it for the first time then, in the dark and all alone, and continues by its light for a little while. When he encounters Gollum, the sword provides a threatened defense, and we see our mild-mannered hero nearly resort to violence. At this point, the sword brings him comfort through its light, and creates a buffer that allows him to engage in the battle of wits with Gollum.
The last and most transformative episode in which Sting plays a part happens when Bilbo is separated from his party, again, in Mirkwood. He wakes to a massive spider wrapping him like a pack lunch. Bilbo slays the spider, the first time he’s actually used the sword, and thereafter, fittingly, he names it Sting. Emboldened, he goes on to save his friends, killing many other spiders on the way. In the name, and in the song Bilbo sings to taunt the spider, we see Bilbo accept that even though he is small, like a fly, he can still protect what he cares about.
Summary of events out of the way, Sting is definitely a Thing in The Hobbit, but if it’s a symbol, what does it represent? And how does it help develop a theme in the book?
The three times Sting appears are times of character growth for Bilbo. It’s connected to the major moments where he steps out of his comfort zone and becomes braver, more heroic, more “Tookish.” There’s a pattern, and that’s one of the easiest ways to turn an ordinary (or not-so-ordinary) object into a symbol. Sting becomes associated with Bilbo’s heroic transformation because we see it in each step along the way. (I will point out that in an earlier draft, Tolkien did have Bilbo kill Smaug, presumably with Sting. But even in the current iteration, I think his encounter with Smaug is more a moment of proving than of transformation for Bilbo.) Sting symbolizes everything that Bilbo becomes and everything that made him that way.
Final Thoughts
Make symbols by embedding them in patterns of choices and consequences. Lead your reader to associate it with your abstract concept, don’t just tell them what it symbolizes. Once you’ve done that, the symbol will do the rest for you. If there’s a true symbol of bravery, for instance, in your story, theme will naturally follow that.
Hope this helps, go write something.
Wishing he had a magic sword,
Tyler Hess
Freelance Editor
https://www.tylerhessportfolio.com
www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-hess-a76629170
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