What Does The Thing In The Forest Symbolize

The short story “The Thing in the Forest'' by A.S Byatt is a story full of mysteries and mysterious events two young girls go through together. The author Byatt makes use of imagery and symbolism to convey strong underlying meanings and help develop the plot. The main purpose of the story is to use imagery and symbolism through beings and places the two main characters Penny and Primrose encounter and the life events they experienced respectivly. Over all the symbolism gives a perspective on how war might be seen by a child and everything associated with it. The first instance in which we see imagery and symbolism used to convey wartime is the “thing” in the first. However the “thing”is not the only main use of these two literary devices,

Byatt does an excellent job of bringing the reader to a closer perspective and making the story feel alive and real. “The Thing” is most likely the biggest use of symbolism throughout this story. This creature, or “thing” that these girls believed they had seen, left possibly one of the biggest impacts on their life, leaving behind an unsettling amount of trauma. “The Thing” as described in the story, was blind, miserable and seemed to be in pain. It’s smell radiating off of it smelt of blocked drains, maggoty things, and rotten eggs. The loathly worm symbolizes the trauma after the war and the misery that had been brought with it. While Primrose and Penny did get evacuated to another country, it symbolizes that they cannot escape the dread, fear, confusion and disruption the war caused them and their families. Another great form of symbolization that the author portrays is also a part of the trauma caused by the war, specifically for Primrose. While the girls catch up after finding each other once again, Primrose states “You couldn’t get cream or real jam in the war (Byatt 386)”. The after effects of the war have left her permanently greedy, implying that Primrose compulsively overeats in fear that she may be deprived of food once