Choose a novel or short story in which a technique (such as symbolism) is used you the author and is, in your view, vital to the success of the text.
Explain how the writer employs this technique and why, in your opinion, it is so important to your appreciation of the text.
In your answer you must refer closely to the test and to at least two of the: climax, theme, characterisation, plot or any other appropriate feature.
A short story which symbolism is the key to the reader’s appreciation of the text is ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit’ by Slyvia Plath. The story starts with the adult narrator telling the reader of her childhood innocence, and then she takes an adult realisation when she is wrongly accused of a crime and all her dreams fall apart; we understand this due to the symbolic references of Superman, flying and the blue clothes that the hero, Superman, and the villain, Paula Brown, wear. Our appreciation of the text is greatened by the lack of imagination the narrator has towards the end of the short story, as Superman doesn’t ‘come roaring down’ to save her in her dreams. This also increases our sympathy for the unnamed narrator as her dreams have been washed away like the ‘crude drawings of a child’, which is significant as she is in fact only a child.