Dupler has published numerous essays and has taught college English. In this essay, Dupler shows how symbolism is related to memory and time in a novel.

For as long as novels have been written, novelists have grappled with the issue of how to portray the passage of time in their stories. In the nineteenth century, novelists frequently used the epic form of the novel, creating sweeping stories that take place over long expanses of time with actions occurring mainly in chronological order. This form was used by authors such as Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Jane Austen, and countless others. Novelists have also experimented with other ways of dealing with time in novels. In the early twentieth century, James Joyce wrote a long, complex story that takes place in only one day, in the landmark modern novel, Ulysses. Joyce told his story with the realization that people, at...