Biblical Symbolism In Jacob's Ladder

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Biblical Symbolism in Jacob’s Ladder: A Potential Origin Story Although it may not have been intended, the title of Fitzgerald’s short story, Jacob’s Ladder suggests and invites biblical symbolism. In the Book of Genesis, the biblical Patriarch, Jacob, dreamt of a ladder that connects Earth to the gate of Heaven. On his way toward Haran, Jacob rested on a stone where “he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven” (Genesis 28: 10-19). With this in mind, Fitzgerald may have alluded to the original text in the Old Testament due to the symbolic value it serves in the subcontext of his short story. For either Jacob, the metaphorical ladder did not lead to Heaven, yet instead, in the literal