Reader Question: Is the use of symbolism a good thing?

Reader question from Piotr:

Hi Scott,

I am writing an action spec script.

In one of the early scenes, the protagonist watches two goons shove a third guy into one another, throwing a punch with each shove.

This is meant to symbolize the fact that the protagonist bounces between two other (father-figure) characters throughout the story and ends up suffering for it each time.

In your view, should I hint at this symbolism in the spec script I’m writing?

Thanks a lot!

Here is my response:

Piotr, why don’t we expand what you’re calling ‘symbolism’ into a broader frame and that is this: In a screenplay, when something happens… something ELSE happens. You can read a blog post I wrote on this subject here.

A good story has all sorts of layers to it. There’s what we see and hear, Action and Dialogue, but then things going on underneath the surface. Sometimes they can be specifically symbolic — for example, a cop disgusted with police work tosses his badge into the ocean. But more often than not, there are multiple levels of meaning.

And that’s great because we want to pull in readers to a story’s depth and potential meaning.

So for example, consider Zuzu’s petals in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. They are from a flower which Zuzu won as a prize:

Of course, they exist as part of the plot so that later George WON’T find them in his pocket — when Clarence has made it so George never existed — then WILL find them when he is returned to the land of the living. This is the practical plot-oriented function of the petals.

But what do the petals represent?

* Yet ANOTHER thing George has to fix. His whole life has turned out to be about him helping others. And in doing so, he’s turned away from the very things he wanted to do: travel the world, build big things.

* A flower is beautiful, but in his moment of despair, he is unable to see their beauty, unlike Zuzu who is enraptured by the flower.

* Fragility. Existence is fragile, something George comes to experience in nearly committing suicide, then seeing how big a difference one person’s life can make, either for good or bad. How fragile that line based on choices we make every moment of every day.

So it’s a flower. But below the surface, there are layers of meaning which give this scene, indeed, the flower’s tiny subplot, added meaning.

Therefore, yes, look for ‘symbolic’ moments. Embrace the idea that when something happens… something ELSE happens!

It’s more than just symbolism. There are layers upon layers of emotional meaning and psychological depth available to us in any scene, any character, any moment.

We just have to have the eyes to see them!

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