Saroyan's Use Of Symbolism In The Short Story Gaston

People often say that one should dare to be different. Saroyan, the author of the short story, “Gaston,” would like to think that although this is said more times than one can count, not many put it to practice. Saroyan uses symbolism and characterization to demonstrate that different ideas are often overpowered by the majority. Saroyan uses symbolism to portray that the majority has the ability to shut down opposing thoughts. When Gaston, the grand boulevardier, crept out of the peach seed, the girl and her father had reactions that clashed against each other: “’Everybody hollers when a bug comes out of an apple, but you don’t holler or anything.’ ‘Of course not. How would we like it if somebody hollered every time we came out of our

She is shown to represent most of society by thinking the way the majority of people think. If Saroyan didn’t have the mother represent society, then the story wouldn’t

After the father had eaten the peach, the young girl was confused and didn’t know why he had done that: “’Nobody else I know would do that,’ the girl said. ‘They’d throw it away.’ ‘I can’t imagine why. It’s a perfect good peach’” (Saroyan 2). When the father shares his common sense to his daughter, the fact that his thought process is a bit different compared to others is emphasized; he thinks through things much more in depth. By including the father’s characteristics, the readers are able to see how strange he truly is. Later on in the story, the mother phoned the little girl: “Somebody get a peach with a bug in it, and throws it away, but not him. He makes up a lot of foolishness about it’” (Saroyan 3). During this phone call, her personality and thoughts towards the father suggest that she thinks like everybody else would; she would crush the bug due to the mere fact that it is bug, and if one wouldn’t kill it, then he or she would be considered on the stranger side of things. If the mother acted different compared to the rest of the world, like the father, then the story would end with three of the main characters thinking the exact same thing, making the story’s concept unable to be conveyed. Also, the characterization of the mother adds contrast to the father’s personality, creating a more obvious difference between