Line #45 Main/WorldOfSymbolism


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pilgrims-map_94.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:How will we ever break the news to Simple, Sloth and Presumption's families?]]
3
4	->''"Everything represents, nothing is."''
5	-->-- '''Creator/IngmarBergman''', from ''The Magician''
6
7	Fiction often works on several levels. On the one hand, you have the story that's actually being told, and the characters the story involves; on the other, you have the meaning behind the story, abstract ideas represented by the characters and symbols reflecting the story's view of the world. Even if the writer didn't intend for the story to have a deeper meaning, {{applicability}} may give it a resonance and context that goes beyond the basic plot. ''Literature/MobyDick'' is a story about an obsessed whaler hunting down a monstrous whale, but it's also about humanity railing uselessly against an uncaring universe. ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' may have been intended just as a fantasy epic, but it has symbolic applications ranging from World War 2 to the loss of innocence.
8
9	But then sometimes you have stories with ''no'' literal level. At all.
10
11	These are the stories where the only answer to "why did the main character turn into a hawk and fly into a volcano at the end" is "because the hawk represents his desire for freedom and the volcano is the burden of free will". There is no straightforward, realistic storyline masking the symbolism, there's not even a MagicAIsMagicA sense of logic tying it all together. This is subtext without the text; subtext ''as'' text. The characters are complex self-representing archetypes and the events that unfold make no physical sense whatsoever unless you take the whole thing as a [[{{Postmodern}} semiotic play]] of some kind.
12
13	Needless to say, this sort of plot [[VoodooShark can prove frustrating]] for literal-minded audiences who expect a more concrete answer to a plot hole than "because the plot hole symbolizes our inability to define existential truth". Such complaints about the story's lack of narrative logic are often dismissed by its fans with ViewersAreMorons, with fans and non-fans talking past each other and on entirely different levels. Literary allegory has been [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools a respected genre]] since about [[OlderThanDirt as long as myths have been written]], and it got its start in myths and folklore meant to both explain and symbolize the forces of nature and humanity's place in the world. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools On the other hand]], one can argue that a modern-day author whose story doesn't hold together on every level has only written half a story; Shakespeare's plays may be full of symbolism, but they also work just as well as straightforward comedies and tragedies.
14
15	Such stories are often a source of incurable MindScrew, since there's really no way to make narrative sense out of them, and an EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory outlook is just about required. When most people think of TrueArt books, movies and so on, this is usually the sort of thing they're thinking of, though it can all fall down if it's mixed up with too much gratuitous FauxSymbolism. If the fandom insists on coming up with [[EpilepticTrees a literal explanation]] for what's happening, ThroughTheEyesOfMadness or AllJustADream are common rationales.
16
17	See also RuleOfSymbolism, which is what happens when an otherwise realistic story relies on a momentary suspension of disbelief in the name of symbolism, and RuleOfCool, which does the same thing for the sake of awesomeness.
18
19	----
20	!!Examples
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
25	* Anime series directed by Creator/KunihikoIkuhara are often set in this kind of world, and keeping this trope in mind is usually the key to understanding his works. Much of the surreal imagery has a deeper meaning (if it isn't something he decided to add on a whim) and isn't meant to be taken at face value.
26	** ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' relies on Jungian archetypes to explain immortal power struggles, with surreal landscapes and a bewildering sword fighting tournament set in an ostensibly modern, ordinary world. It also uses fairy tale archetypes and motifs to examine and deconstruct gender roles, especially ones that are prevalent in [[ShoujoDemographic shoujo]] series. If you've ever found yourself lying awake at night wondering how the heck human girls can inexplicably lay eggs or turn into cars, this might not be the anime for you.
27	** ''Anime/{{Penguindrum}}'' can also be quite surreal, especially in the case of the Child Broiler, which is treated like a real place by the characters despite how a factory where children are sent to be "broiled" is something no sane government in real life would allow to exist. However, it can also be seen as a metaphor for how unwanted children are forgotten, or how children are crushed by society into becoming generic nobodies.
28	** ''Anime/YuriKumaArashi'' can be seen as a huge allegory for Japan's overall view of lesbians versus how they're portrayed in works from the YuriGenre. In an interview, Ikuhara has implicitly compared lesbians to bears, in that they're portrayed as cutesy innocents in fiction but viewed with distrust in real life.
29	* ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' has the premise that the real world and the internet are gradually merging. It sounds simple enough, but the way it's depicted is entirely this trope. Anything explained is done as a GeniusBonus, but the vast majority of the plot relies on vague symbolism and inferences.
30	* Creator/JunjiIto's horror manga usually rely on this sort of explanation for TheReveal. For one low-key example, ''The Earthbound'' has people mysteriously losing their will to live and becoming inexplicably rooted to one spot. The revelation that [[spoiler:they're being weighed down by the guilt of their secret crimes]] might not make any literal sense, but it's the only one offered.
31	* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' involves anthropomorphic embodiments of nations living lives that reflect major events in each one's history, initially focusing on UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 but eventually moving both forward and backward through history. There are some vague attempts every now and then to flesh out the setting into a more literal, realistic context, but ironically, they only make things ''more'' confusing.
32	* ''Anime/AngelsEgg'' is basically a visual poem with no real plot or characters; they are all simply symbols taking part in a huge visual metaphor. What it stands for? [[MindScrew Well, it has something to do with Christianity]].
33	* ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'' is centered around the mystery of the setting, and ultimately almost none of it is explained. The details of ''why'' don't matter, though, because the important part is the extended metaphor for the important questions of life.
34	* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}''. Oh, ''mamma mia'' ''FLCL''. One theory is that they took the plot of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', removed the depression, and condensed it down to six episodes, without removing a single phallic symbol.
35	* ''[[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion Madoka Rebellion]]'' amps up the symbolism from [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica the original anime]], which mostly included this in the witch barriers. In Rebellion, it's prevalent throughout the whole movie. [[spoiler:Justified, because Rebellion actually ends up taking place almost entirely within one of those barriers, which are [[MentalWorld representations of the mind]] of the witch during their last moments as a magical girl, and naturally would be heavily symbolic.]]
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Comic Books]]
39	* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' operates more on a metaphorical level than on a literal one, to the extent that the physical reality can be said to be an extension of metaphors. Rather appropriate for a series centering around the AnthropomorphicPersonification of dreams.
40	* ''ComicBook/DeCapeEtDeCrocs'': The moon is populated by peoples who behave according to the rules of literature. That is, inhabitants of Palindromia wear symmetrical clothes and speak in, well, palindromes, Litotians speak in {{Understatement}}s ("a handful" for "thousands", "I hate you not" for "I love you", "The idea is not unpleasant" for "BigYes"...), the spooneristic smugglers' every sentence is a filthy joke when decoded, etc.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
44	* Pretty much every element of ''Animation/SonOfTheWhiteHorse'' is symbolically tied to ancient Eurasian folklore, mythological iconography, astrology and the cyclical nature of seasons and days, the criticism of modernity and pollution, heaps of sexuality, and some even think there's a couple jabs at Communism hidden in there. Following only the incredibly basic plot and taking in the abstract visuals at face value means you literally miss over half of the story.
45	* While the story of ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' unfolds quite realistically on one level, much of the action takes place in the world within Riley's head, which runs on symbolism to the point where the fact that memories can be colored by Sadness is both a LiteralMetaphor and a major plot point.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
49	* A favorite technique of Creator/CharlieKaufman, especially in movies he both writes ''and'' directs. ''Film/SynecdocheNewYork'' and ''Film/ImThinkingOfEndingThings'' are this in spades, with worlds that seem to entirely operate on the logic of the allegories they represent. Somewhat justified in the case of the latter as [[spoiler:the film takes place inside the memories of a man slowly dying from hypothermia reminiscing on what he could have done in life, but that framing device [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext still doesn't explain a lot.]]]]
50	* Creator/DavidLynch's movies have a reputation for falling into this category. Though some of them do have a comprehensible story, there's simply no way to take movies like ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'' and ''Film/InlandEmpire'' on anything except a very symbolic, fever-dream level.
51	* The Shinya Tsukamoto cult film ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' starts off in a realistic world and gradually delves deeper into BodyHorror territory. Like Junji Ito's stories, however, TheReveal for what's happening to the protagonist only makes sense only on a symbolic level.
52	* Lars von Trier's ''Film/{{Antichrist}}'' also works on this level. Critical discussions on it range the topics of love and hate, order versus chaos and the nature of guilt. Questions about precisely where the talking fox and the tree with hands came from are a different matter.
53	* ''Film/{{Identity}}'' runs on a symbolic level. [[spoiler:The entire world and all the characters are actually nothing more or less than the pieces of a madman's fractured mind, and the struggle between the characters are his internal mental struggle]].
54	* The ending of ''Film/SnowInAugust'', where protagonist Michael Devlin [[spoiler: is able to summon the Golem of Jewish folklore and has it beat up the Falcons (the [[TeensAreMonsters teenaged thugs that have been terrorizing him]]). He then heals Rabbi Hirsch of his extremely life-threatening injuries (inflicted by the Falcons), after which Hirsch reunites with his wife who had been killed in the Holocaust]]. The whole thing seems to have been an allegory for the healing power of religious faith and may have also been symbolic of Michael's extreme CharacterDevelopment, though some have interpreted it as an AssPull.
55	* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' works on this level by being an allegory to the degradation of the human condition in ''Literature/WorksAndDays'' and ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''.
56	* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' can be easy to miss due to the chaos and the fact that it's a never ending chase, but one can pick almost any scene and find some level of symbolism in it. Chains are widely used to represent oppression and slavery, both in connection with Max and Nux, Immortan Joe having his "failed" wives milked like cattle, Nux's chest scars formed into an engine, etc.
57	* The ''Franchise/JohnWick'' franchise is chock-full of mythological and historical references, usually to Greek myths, fairy tales and Christianity. For example, the concierge of the Continental hotel is called Charon, ferryman of the dead in Greek mythology, signaling the parallel between the "world of the dead" of Greek mythos and the world of crime in the movie. Second movie even has two of its primary antagonists be called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares Ares]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassian Cassian]] to drive the theological motifs home. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3P1ejh9pGs&t=467s One video attempts to collect all the parallels made in the first film]] and it ''still leaves quite a few out''.
58	* ''Film/Annihilation2018'' is one large metaphor for grief and how it changes you. The [[EldritchLocation Shimmer]] represents pain, especially in relation to cancer, while each person of the team sent in represents a different self-destructive reaction to trauma [[spoiler:and the ways they die or escape are very closely tied to those reactions]].
59	* ''Film/AmericanBeauty'': Everything. The director goes into great detail in the commentary about it. Its ripe for Media study classes.
60	* ''Film/{{Gozu}}'': Starts out looking like a typical {{Yakuza}} film but slowly turns to SurrealHorror on a level comparable to a David Lynch film as the protagonist encounters increasingly bizarre and seemingly random characters and events. It makes more sense if you realize that a lot of it is references to Japanese and Greek mythology. The consensus is that it is all a metaphor for the main character coming to terms with his homosexuality or something like that.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Literature]]
64	* ''Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress'', though it narrowly averts the trope by presenting itself [[AllJustADream as a dream]], remains one of the most famous "pure" allegories in literature. Just in case there's any confusion over the matter, the characters are actually ''named'' things like Christian, Good Will, Hypocrisy and Ignorance.
65	** Bunyan also wrote a less well-known allegorical novel called ''The Holy War,'' in which [[{{God}} King Shaddai]] and his son [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Emmanuel]] fight against [[{{Satan}} Diabolus]] for rulership of the town of [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Mansoul]]. This one dispenses with the AllJustADream disclaimer, and is considered much less successful.
66	* Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/ThePilgrimsRegress'', being a sort of personalized version of Pilgrim's Progress, has this.
67	* The works of Creator/FranzKafka are also famous for not making sense on anything but the metaphorical level. In his case, though, even the metaphor's very much up for debate. In ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'', Gregor Samsa turns into a giant bug. Why that happened and what it represents, if anything, is entirely up to the reader. The most trusted interpretation is that Gregor has become literally what he had been figuratively in his creeping submissive personality and in his exploited role in his family, though a more popular and mundane modern rationalization is that the transformation represents mental illness so Gregor is just imagining his transformation due to insanity. This symbolism-vs-mundanity argument is still debated among high school and college students.
68	* Modernist literature in general approaches its stories from this perspective, most famously in T.S. Eliot's long poem ''Literature/TheWasteLand''. The images are bizarre, disturbing and can only begin to make sense if the reader takes every everything symbolically.
69	* ''Literature/TheAlchemist'' by Paulo Coelho, about a shephard boy's journey to Egypt, works on this level.
70	* ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' by Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge mixes some supernatural elements into the story, though if you're left wondering why birds are such incredibly SeriousBusiness, remember that it's all an allegory about faith and atonement.
71	* Norton Juster's ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' has the tollbooth leading to a world of pure allegory and language come to life (often in [[HurricaneOfPuns puntastic]] form). There might be magic involved with the tollbooth itself (it's not made clear), but once Milo crosses it, he's off to places like the island of Conclusions (that you arrive at only by [[{{Pun}} jumping]]) on a quest to return the princesses Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason to the kingdom of Wisdom. Yeah.
72	* ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'': [[spoiler: [[MessianicArchetype Matt is Jesus]], the dream world is Heaven, and the [[ChekhovsGunman lady that Scar saw in the Library]] is the Virgin Mary. Scott could also be seen as Judas.]]
73	* ''Literature/TheThingsTheyCarried'' is modern {{Surrealism}} that reaches this level, just about everything is symbolic, and the UnreliableNarrator makes it clear that fiction is sometimes truer than the truth.
74	* In the Paarfi novels set in ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'''s historical past, Zerika's journey through the Paths of the Dead is depicted in this way, with every obstacle or environment she encounters reflecting the fundamental nature of one of the 17 Houses.
75	* Creator/DaveBarry had some advice on what courses to take in college, such as English:
76	-->Here is a tip on how to get good grades on your English papers: Never say anything about a book that anybody with any common sense would say. For example, suppose you are studying Moby-Dick. Anybody with any common sense would say that Moby-Dick is a big white whale, since the characters in the book refer to it as a big white whale roughly eleven thousand times. So in your paper, you say Moby-Dick is actually the Republic of Ireland.\
77	Your professor, who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby-Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
81	* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' similarly more or less defies a literal explanation, as one early episode after another seems intentionally designed to blow away any rational theory about The Village's nature. The GainaxEnding certainly didn't help matters; it's notable that [[Series/ThePrisoner2009 the 2009 remake]] resolved the setting by placing it [[spoiler: within a literal world of symbols... i.e. a dream world]].
82	* Many of the episodes of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' occur on a purely symbolic level as well, mixed in with more straightforward science fiction and fantasy stories. For instance, in "I am the Night, Color Me Black", why hasn't the Sun risen and why is darkness spreading all over the world? Because [[spoiler:all the hatred in the world has blotted out the light]].
83	* ''Series/TwinPeaks'', being created by David Lynch, also approaches pure allegory at times. There might be supernatural forces at work in the town, or the whole thing might be a prolonged allegory about something else entirely.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
87	* TabletopGame/MageTheAscension has a few elements of this in various places, as well as in its general mechanics. Notably, there is the Astral Umbra, which Mages can access with the sphere of Mind. In this realm, literally everything is the symbolic made manifest, with dream logic, mythopoetic structure, and metaphor acting as the rules of the realm.
88	* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' is similar in many respects. Not only in its Astral Space, but many aspects of the "real" world are implied to be purely symbolic abstracts made manifest (most strongly in the sourcebook "Keys to the Supernal Tarot"), and Imperial Mysteries depicts the [[EldritchLocation Supernal World]] as utterly requiring the imposition of symbolism on it to make interaction that does not [[BrownNote utterly obliterate human existence]] to be possible.
89	* TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}} is built around this trope. In the game, players enact Nobles, figures of power that stems directly from the aspect of reality that they embody. They wield these powers through symbols and thoughts that act on a world that is completely a WorldOfSymbolism. By manipulating these symbols, they are able to create acts in the physical realm which are truly massive.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Theater]]
93	* ''The Summoning of Everyman'', an English morality play. God sends Death to summon Everyman, who represents mankind, and Everyman meets characters like Good Deeds and Knowledge. 15th century morality plays weren't known for being subtle.
94	** Imitated in the early 20th century by ''Everywoman'' and ''Experience''.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Video Games]]
98	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvOoCZyWRQ Genesis Noir]] is, on the surface, a detective story where the hero is trying to stop a woman from getting murdered. It is also a metaphor for the origin of the universe. The characters are personifications of various concepts and the shot that's supposed to kill the woman is the Big Bang.
99	* ''VideoGame/Killer7'' makes no sense whatsoever on a literal level. Just to begin with, there's the fact that the main character physically turns into their split personalities. Think it's just ThroughTheEyesOfMadness? If said split personalities die, they turn into their own severed head in a paper bag which can then be retrieved by a different personality. Even more obviously metaphorical is the fact that [[spoiler:two of the main characters, who represent the West and the East and their conflicts, are immortal, because of the futility of war]].
100	* ''VideoGame/Journey2012''. While the story obviously resembles TheHerosJourney, you may feel free to interpret it whatever you want, as no words are heard at all here, even when you communicate with a companion. The backstory is told through confluences and glyphs. The only voices you hear in the game come from [[SentientPhlebotinum cloth creatures]] and [[LostSuperweapon machines]], and still no words.
101	* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' is a notorious example.
102	** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' was mostly realistic.
103	** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' spends about two-thirds of the game hinting that it's this before jumping headfirst into trippiness.
104	** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' flirts with it. Most of the game is a straightforward-ish spy thriller, but the boss fights just throw bizarre MagicRealism at you.
105	** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' abandons it entirely in order to [[MindScrewdriver provide concrete answers to every question the series raised]].
106	* ''VideoGame/ThePath'' runs wild with this trope, as it's a metaphorical horror take on the Red Riding Hood story. Why are six girls named after different shades of red each visiting their creepy grandmother one by one, walking through the woods alone and confronting [[spoiler:a shapeshifting being that leads them to a nightmarishly transformed version of grandma's house]]? Well, it's because the wolf represents temptation, grandma's house symbolizes death (or adulthood), the path is a metaphor for obedience, the girls embody different stages of adolescence...
107	* ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose'' has got symbolism coming out its ears, and it's never made clear what most of it means and what actually happened to Jennifer.
108	* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series is famous for working, to some degree, on this level, though how much of it can also be explained via supernatural phenomena varies from game to game theory to theory. The second game in particular presents its story almost solely on a symbolic level. What is Pyramid Head? [[spoiler:A reflection of James' guilt, sexuality and need for punishment]]. Who is Maria? [[spoiler:An idealized yet distorted memory of his dead wife]]. Yes, but, literally, what ''are'' they and where did they come from? At the very least, you'll need information from the other games to even start making guesses.
109	* ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' is full of this trope, since the various scenarios that AM creates for his 5 victims are deliberately designed to [[IronicHell exploit their past weaknesses]]. [[spoiler: At the endgame, Surgat explains that symbolism is AM's FatalFlaw, because he turns his own code into symbolic objects that the characters can use to defeat AM once and for all.]]
110	* ''VideoGame/NeverendingNightmares'' justifies this with the game taking place in the main character's head. Everything from the environments to the enemies to every individual line of dialogue has some subtext to it representative of his mental state and his wide variety of real-world issues and worries.[[note]]What those issues are is, of course, up to you to figure out.[[/note]]
111	* ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'': Headspace is an exotic locale [[spoiler: entirely contructed out of Sunny's dreams, and everything that happens in it is connected to his trauma]], [[FauxSymbolism although there is some random nonsensical dream stuff here and there]].
112	* ''VideoGame/{{Anodyne}}'' is seemingly representative of the protagonist's mind, so the whole thing is different degrees of this. The endgame is particularly symbolic.
113	* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' tells, very symbolically, the story of a very creative young man and the [[AbusiveParents abusive]] [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] [[OneBadMother mother]] who believes God has ordered her to abuse and eventually sacrifice him.
114	* In a lighter example, many of the jokes in ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' rely on the characters as the embodiments of video game companies and concepts.
115	* ''VideoGame/StoriesUntold'' initially appears to avert this, with four separate episodes with different gameplay mechanics and settings each time. [[spoiler: The fourth one plays this straight, explaining that everything that came before was simply [[AllJustADream a series of dreams that James Aition had after an accident]]. Doubled upon in that his therapist, Dr. Alexander, wants James to re-explore his own dreams to find out what really happened.]]
116	* The ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' games often play this to a degree, with elements in each of the Ages relating to what the Age was about. ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'' runs deliberately on this trope, given that the 4 Lesson Ages in the game were written by Atrus to teach Sirrus and Achenar about how Ages are written.
117	* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'' is ''all about this trope''. [[NoPlotNoProblem There's no real plot or dialogue,]] just the journey of a little girl in her MentalWorld. [[spoiler: Though it ''does'' have an ending, in which she [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]]]].
118	* In ''VideoGame/{{LISA}}: The First'', all of the strange things seen throughout the game can be interpreted as evidence of Lisa's terrible life, however, some of them are left ambiguous as to how exactly they fit into the bigger picture.
119	* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', being a game built upon diving inside of people's minds, naturally runs with this. Everything from the the level layouts to the [=NPCs=] you encounter has a deeper insight into the psychology of whoever you're mentally exploring.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Interactive Fiction/Visual Novels]]
123	%%* VisualNovel/BlueChairs
124	* VisualNovel/ForAChange goes out of its way to avoid describing much of anything with concrete detail. Symbolic interpretations are therefore ''easier to make'' than literal ones.
125	* VisualNovel/{{Metamorphoses}}, mostly, but it has a sort of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'' thing going on, such that the symbolic explanation is the same as the literal one.
126	* ''VisualNovel/War13thDay'' is built beautifully on this [[spoiler:as it's [[AllJustADream Wildfire's dream]]]], and it even explains what everything represents in the True End. It doesn't completely clarify the true version of events, but as the opening act to ''[[https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=36651 War (X Playing Pieces)]]'', it definitely knows how to whet one's appetite.
127	* Once you get past the initial MindScrew of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', many of the fantasy scenes (i.e, scenes involving magic and magical beings that are [[UnreliableNarrator narrated by Beatrice]]) can be seen as symbolic of various things, from aspects of murder mysteries to the characters' inner conflicts.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Web Original]]
131	* ''Podcast/AliceIsntDead'': Many of the bizarre supernatural events that take place in the story but never get explained can best be interpreted as being symbolic of something. Some of these include a town trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop, a factory where the only worker goes through RapidAging which seems to exist only to build and launch the worker's coffin, a restaurant that seems to exist in multiple places at once, and an unmoving GhostShip that swallows anyone who gets too close but gets destroyed and leaves no trace behind. An oracle claims that the thistle men are a manifestation of the desire to believe that evil people are not human. The epilogue strongly implies that the BigBad [[spoiler:Thistle]] is some form of AnthropomorphicPersonification.
132	* ''Blog/InvisibleGames'': Done in-universe in ''The Pentintytär Arcade''. All of the arcade games found in Irja Pentintytär's home are loose adaptations of events from the lives of her and her late brother Viljami, starring reoccurring sibling avatars named Sisko and Veikko. By themselves, there's no in-game reason to catch wish-granting fish with Veikko, or for Sisko to collect mushrooms that eventually overwhelm her, or for a flight simulator to be followed up by Veikko walking through a void, but each adventure has a meaning that becomes clearer after matching them with their accompanying Finnish title.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Webcomics]]
136	* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' has an entire branch of magic devoted to this called Signamancy. Just about everything in Erfworld involves a pun and/or a reference to the real world, which implies some deeper meaning about the given entity. For example, when Parson negotiates with a King resembling President Nixon, Parson realizes that this means he is untrustworthy and shrewd.
137	* [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page531.html This]] ''Webcomic/{{Subnormality}}'' strip is a symbolic take on "[[{{Pun}} the human race]]."
138	* Parodied in the ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' strip "Atonement". A man walks the Path of Vengeance, which includes tasks such a physically grappling with Hope and being handed a small basket full of Justice, until he meets the Allegory for Allegory itself.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	%%[[folder:Western Animation]]
142	%%How?* Apparently WesternAnimation/TwelveOunceMouse fits this trope.
143	%%The Videos are unavailable, and thus, there is no example. Commented out until someone fixes it.%%
144	%%* Any single short of the Brothers Quay. Examples: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gIb0bTWj6w This]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Mp-xyqQRo&feature=related This]] And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Uaww0yon4&feature=related This]].%%
145	%%[[/folder]]

Context Main / WorldOfSymbolism