Symbolism, Friends And What's In Your Trunk?

I had the wonderful opportunity recently to meet up with a couple of authors from the Untethered Realms group, Angela Brown and Graeme Ing, here in San Diego. Over Mexican food and margaritas, the conversation turned naturally to writing and sequels. I was asked if my main character, Indigo Eady, would ever unpack her trunk.

 

For those who haven’t read Givin’ UpThe Ghost, Indigo had just lost her father and was forced to move from America to England to live with an uncle and cousin. She’s welcomed warmly into their home, and yet she refused to unpack the trunk that holds all her belongings. She hasn’t accepted the death of her father emotionally, although she knows intellectually that he’s dead and not coming back. But she’s quite insistent that it isn’t her home and pointblank refuses to unpack, even after six months.

That got me to thinking about symbolism. I acknowledged that Indigo’s trunk is really my trunk. I once lived in a house for five years without hanging a single picture on the wall. It’s true! My reason? It wasn’t my home. (don't judge me, LOL!)

You probably don’t want me to get started on what’s inside my trunk, either. But let’s just say that every once in a while I’ll take something out. Turn it over, study it. Once in a great while, when I’m ready, I’ll toss something in the garbage. But mostly, it goes back in the trunk until I decide to take it out and examine it again. Trust me, there are some things in that trunk that only God and I know about. Those things will never see the light of day.

Here's another example. Are there any Friends fans out there? If you’re a fan, you know that Monica is the quintessential perfectionist. Everything she does has to be perfect--and clean--and organized. There’s one episode after she and Chandler got together. He moved in with her and of course he accepted her organizational quirkiness. But Monica had one locked closet and nobody was allowed to see inside. So of course Chandler broke in and got the shock of his life: a hoarder’s closet, stuffed with clutter and crap and a monolithic mess that Monica would never have allowed out in the open. Chandler teased her that she was really a messy person at heart. Monica told him he wasn't supposed to see it. She claimed that while organizing, the stuff in the closet didn't fit into any category.

 

And so symbolism is a way of addressing an issue but still keeping it at a safe distance, or even hidden. Sometimes it's conscious, sometimes not.

 

We're human. I think we all have our issues (I mean, someone who won't hang pictures? WTH?!), and that we all have a trunk or closet or somewhere we hide the crap we don't want anyone to see. 

These issues spill over into our writing.

Maybe it's even the reason we write.

 

Writing and Symbolism are perfect ways to hide things in plain sight.  

Do you use symbolism in your writing?

Care to share?

 

Dare I ask if you have a trunk or closet?