Signs and Symbols

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains outdated references to psychiatric conditions, including the concept of “madness.” This section of the guide also discusses suicide and the Holocaust.



Structurally, “Signs and Symbols” is two stories at once, with one hidden behind the other. On the surface, the narrative follows the mother and father as they navigate a single day filled with mundane hardships, which include their failure in delivering a birthday gift to their son, who has a psychiatric disorder. This outward story masks a second, inner narrative, in which the son is the central character. The son’s journey from “surprised” (Paragraph 10) baby to “ill-shaven” (Paragraph 3) teenager, from insomniac European to suicidal American, is always mediated through the lens of the first story; his experience masked by the perspectives of his parents and his medical caretakers. With the son’s tale buried, the reader is left with the task of trying to sort through the outer narrative to make sense of the inner one.

While the two layered stories are at odds with one another, as exemplified by the fact that the mother and father never actually interact with the son during the narrative, they share a focus on

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