By Michael T. Pizzolato
A symbol is an object in a story that represents itself
along with a thought or emotion that we may sense or feel when we see the
object. In any story, symbols are important because they can lend subconscious
sentiment or emotion to a scene or story.
Symbols vary from culture to culture, but in the Old West
story, symbolism is American as well as Native American.
Here are some symbols and their meanings along with some
examples from western stories, which you may find helpful in your short story,
novel or screenplay:
Rocks and mountains in a story can represent obstacles and
difficulties. Set in Gold Rush California, the short story The Outcasts of
Poker Flats by Bret Harte is about so-called “undesirables” who have been
expelled from an Old West town and must make a journey over the mountains that
represent the arduous tasks ahead replete with danger.
In the novel Double Crossing by Meg Mims, the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierras symbolize the sizeable trials and difficulties ahead
that will include the heroine being pushed off a railroad trestle, nearly
pushed from a train as well as fighting for her life on mining hillside as she
tracks down her father’s murderer.
In the movie Shane, as the young boy cries out to the
severely wounded main character, Shane heads off into the mountains that
represent the final obstacle of Shane’s own eventual death.
In Native American culture, however, the mountain can
represent a journey or a spiritual connection with nature. In The Outlaw
Josey Wales, as Josey talks with Chief Ten Bears, notice the mountain range
behind Wales as he speaks spiritual truths to the chief. The domestic scene of
the Indian village behind the chief symbolizes the land as the Indians home.
Blood exchanged by knife cuts on each man’s hand represents not only
brotherhood but blood as a powerful symbol of purification and redemption,
perhaps a foreshadowing of the movie’s ending when the wounded Josey bleeds
onto his own boot before saying to the forgiving and reluctant villain
Fletcher, “I guess we all died a little in that damn war.” Again, the mountain,
this time larger and closer, is behind Josey in the ending as he converses with
Fletcher and then rides off into those mountains and into the sunset, another
symbol we’ll discuss shortly.
The sun can be a symbol of giving or taking life, depending
on how it’s portrayed. The sun can break through and show brighter days, or it
can be boiling hot and deadly if lost in the desert as in the western movie Seraphim
Falls.
The sunset is a symbol for death and often for story
endings. Though it has been used countless times in western movies and novels,
readers never seem to tire of the age-old symbol of the sun setting on the
cowboy riding or walking off into the sunset.
In The Searchers, the sunset symbol is both an ending as well as a death, as Ethan turns from the
closing door and walks off into the sunset, estranged to a spiritual death away
from the family he worked so hard to unify.
Animals can also be symbols. In Dances with Wolves,
the wolf is analogous to a dog, and a dog in American culture
(Fido=Fidelity/Faith) represents faith. When the wolf is killed, it
demonstrates how Dunbar’s faith is now tested and will be shaken by the events
to come. But the same symbol can mean something different in another culture.
To the Indian culture, the wolf represents a medicine of courage, strength and
loyalty, and so they name Dunbar “Dances with Wolves” who will courageously
leave his American culture for the Native American way of life.
Symbols are important to any story. There are many more than
presented here, and symbols are not universal, that is, they are different for
each culture. However, in western stories, symbols will generally represent
American and Native American values.
More importantly, symbolism can add subconscious emotional
power, not only to a scene but also to the story itself.
-More on symbolism in a future post.
Mike Pizzolato is the Associate Editor, Art Director and
Facebook Coordinator of The Western Online.
