View a FREE sample

Octopus

This object symbolizes synesthesia, which is the ability to hear tastes, smell sounds, and so forth. This object is mentioned many different times throughout the narrative, always in conjunction with its talent for synesthesia. The unnamed narrator seeks to become so skilled at observing (in service to his writing) that eventually he will gain the same abilities as this object.

Dream

This object symbolizes twenty-first century youth's anxiety about an uncertain future. Once the unnamed narrator has been tutoring the eight-year-old boy named Roberto for three months, Roberto tells him about this object. Roberto describes a variety of frightening events in association with this object's occurrence, including the release of murderers from prison and the dawning of a new ice age, adding, “When all the skyscrapers freeze they’re going to fall down like September eleventh...and crush everyone” (12).

Brontosaurus

This object symbolizes a jarring change in...

(read more Symbols/Objects)

This section contains 731 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample