Signs And Symbols By Vladimir Nabokov
In Signs and Symbols by Vladimir Nabokov, a family of Russian immigrants (which consists of a set of elderly parents and a mentally ill son) plan a visit for their son’s birthday in the mental institution in which he resides. The parents arrive at the institution only to be told that their son has recently attempted suicide again and the nurses do not think a visit would be good for his mental health. They begin the long journey home downtrodden and upset, and once they are finally home the father becomes manic. He speaks to his wife of grand gestures that he wants to make to “rescue” his son and give him a normal life, all while continuously being interrupted by phone calls of a girl who wants to speak to “Charlie”. They are interrupted
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Many argue that the jellies DO stand for something, going as far as to say that the physical placement of the jars has meaning. Others say that “ the jellies are linked to the feeling of self assurance that make the parents ‘ripe for disaster’ and that they play a part in the son’s sudden death”. Other critics say that the jars LACK meaning and that we are looking too hard for symbolism in our everyday lives, even going so far as to compare us to the mentally ill son. Nabokov “may have been hinting at their very lack of meaningfulness when he introduced the basket of jellies as an “innocent trifle”, something that even the referential maniac son wouldn’t construe as a threatening cipher…” . In the beginning, the thought process of the parents is gone through so they can find the least-threatening object to give to their son. “For the fourth time in as many years they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to bring a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind…” so this theory makes sense. His parents want to find something that he will not be able to decode as a threat or message, they just want to find something for him to enjoy. To me this proves that his parents just want the best for him and they want him to have a happy life, despite him having spent the majority of his life in a mental
Many argue that the jellies DO stand for something, going as far as to say that the physical placement of the jars has meaning. Others say that “ the jellies are linked to the feeling of self assurance that make the parents ‘ripe for disaster’ and that they play a part in the son’s sudden death”. Other critics say that the jars LACK meaning and that we are looking too hard for symbolism in our everyday lives, even going so far as to compare us to the mentally ill son. Nabokov “may have been hinting at their very lack of meaningfulness when he introduced the basket of jellies as an “innocent trifle”, something that even the referential maniac son wouldn’t construe as a threatening cipher…” . In the beginning, the thought process of the parents is gone through so they can find the least-threatening object to give to their son. “For the fourth time in as many years they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to bring a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind…” so this theory makes sense. His parents want to find something that he will not be able to decode as a threat or message, they just want to find something for him to enjoy. To me this proves that his parents just want the best for him and they want him to have a happy life, despite him having spent the majority of his life in a mental