The heap of meaning

The heap of meaning is a symbol of the desperation the students feel in trying to prove to Pierre Anthon that things have meaning in and of themselves. The whole reason they begin to put the heap of meaning together in the first place is seemingly that they cannot bear to imagine that Pierre might be right and things may not have inherent meaning. As a result, the things placed on the heap become increasingly more disturbing as they flail to find things that contain meaning.

Pierre Anthon

Pierre Anthon himself is a symbol of a nihilistic way of thinking. He concludes that nothing is worth doing since nothing has any meaning at the very start of the novel, and then he stops going to school and just sits on top of his plum tree all day proclaiming different tenets of his philosophy...