Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work—and Whether It Was Intentional
Discussion posted by: David McNamara
It was 1963, and 16-year-old Bruce McAllister was sick of symbol-hunting in English class. Rather than quarrel with his teacher, he went straight to the source: McAllister mailed a crude, four-question survey to 150 novelists, asking if they intentionally planted symbolism in their work. Seventy-five authors responded. Here’s what 12 of them had to say. (The original responses were published in The Paris Review.) In case you were wondering, McAllister eventually became an English professor.