A school's front doors are so heavy that the smallest children need help to open them.Stands for: a world built for someone else. Seen when: a girl props one open with her bag.
An attic window is the only one in the house that faces the sea.Stands for: a wish kept out of the way. Seen when: a bed is carried up.
A vine planted the day a shop opened has covered the sign.Stands for: a name no longer needed. Seen when: a stranger finds the shop anyway.
A boy carries the key to a bike lock, and the bike was stolen in the spring.Stands for: a loss not accepted. Seen when: he locks his new bike with it.
A boy is given his own house key on a string too long for his neck.Stands for: trust he has not grown into. Seen when: he ties a knot in the string himself.
A cat flap stays in a kitchen wall two years after the cat.Stands for: a sadness nobody mentions. Seen when: a stray's nose appears in it.
A drawbridge in a river town is raised for one boat a year.Stands for: a custom kept for its own sake. Seen when: the boat does not come.
A family keeps a key on a hook by the door, though no one remembers what it opens.Stands for: the past they do not talk about. Seen when: the youngest tries it in every lock.
A farmhouse has a front door used only for weddings and bad news.Stands for: formality. Seen when: a friend knocks there by mistake.
A fence goes up between two gardens with a knothole at a child's eye height.Stands for: curiosity the adults have lost. Seen when: a note is passed through.
A garden gate between two houses has been painted shut on one side only.Stands for: a quarrel one neighbor has forgotten. Seen when: the children climb over it.
A girl's bedroom door has a hole where the lock used to be.Stands for: privacy lost. Seen when: she is handed the lock back.
A hallway in a shared house has five doors and one doormat.Stands for: who feels at home. Seen when: a second mat appears.
A revolving door in an office spins a new clerk back out onto the street.Stands for: not yet belonging. Seen when: someone steps in beside him.
A school's front doors are so heavy that the smallest children need help to open them.Stands for: a world built for someone else. Seen when: a girl props one open with her bag.
A shop has a back door that every owner has left unlocked for the baker next door.Stands for: an old kindness. Seen when: the new owner fits a bolt.
A spare key has lain under a flowerpot since a daughter left for the city.Stands for: a welcome kept ready. Seen when: the pot has been moved and the key is gone.
A ticket gate at a station keeps rejecting a man's valid ticket.Stands for: a move he does not want to make. Seen when: the guard waves him through, and he waits.
A watchtower has a door on its seaward side that opens onto nothing.Stands for: a plan abandoned. Seen when: a visitor asks where it led.
A window that will not close lets one moth in every night.Stands for: a worry that returns. Seen when: she stops getting up to chase it.
A woman moves into a flat with a door too narrow for her mother's table.Stands for: what cannot come with her. Seen when: she eats her first meal off a packing box.
An old man oils the hinges of a gate nobody uses.Stands for: hope of a visit. Seen when: it swings open without a sound.
Two sisters share a locker, and only one of them knows the combination.Stands for: who decides. Seen when: the other asks for it out loud.
Clocks and calendars 20
A boy keeps the wristwatch that stopped the week he learned to tell time.Stands for: pride in a first skill. Seen when: he teaches his brother on it.
A boy's advent calendar has one door he refuses to open.Stands for: wanting the waiting to last. Seen when: his sister opens it for him.
A calendar in a workshop still shows the month the business nearly closed.Stands for: a lesson the owner will not risk forgetting. Seen when: the apprentice turns the page.
A candle is lit at dinner only until it burns down to a scratch in the wax.Stands for: rationed peace. Seen when: someone lights a second.
A cuckoo clock's bird has been stuck inside for years.Stands for: a shy child in a loud house. Seen when: both come out on the same afternoon.
A diary has one week torn out, neatly, along the binding.Stands for: a choice to forget. Seen when: the pages turn up as a bookmark.
A family marks heights on a doorframe, and one line has no name beside it.Stands for: someone not spoken of. Seen when: a visiting cousin stands under it.
A girl keeps a paper chain that counts down to a move she dreads.Stands for: time she cannot stop. Seen when: she starts adding links.
A grandfather keeps the kitchen radio tuned to the time signal of the country he left.Stands for: a life in two places. Seen when: he lets a grandchild turn the dial.
A grandmother's wall calendar has someone's birthday written on every square.Stands for: a life measured in other people. Seen when: nobody has written hers.
A kitchen clock runs ten minutes fast, and a family has never corrected it.Stands for: a father's fear of being late. Seen when: his daughter sets it right before her own trip.
A man sells clocks, and his own wrist is bare.Stands for: time sold and not kept. Seen when: a customer asks him the hour.
A man sets his alarm for the hour of a job he retired from.Stands for: who he was. Seen when: he gets up anyway and makes two coffees.
A metronome ticks on a piano nobody plays.Stands for: discipline without joy. Seen when: a child dances to it.
A school bell rings three minutes late all year.Stands for: a headmaster's small mercy. Seen when: his replacement has it fixed.
A station's departure board has one line that never changes.Stands for: a town left behind. Seen when: a train pulls in under it.
A stopwatch hangs round a coach's neck long after her last race.Stands for: measuring everything. Seen when: she walks a mile without starting it.
A sundial stands in a garden grown too shady to use it.Stands for: a purpose outlived. Seen when: someone trims one branch.
A town clock has four faces that disagree.Stands for: a council that cannot agree. Seen when: a child asks which one is right.
An hourglass on a teacher's desk is turned for every test.Stands for: pressure. Seen when: a student turns it back, and she lets it stand.
Gardens and growing things 20
A boy keeps a cactus because it asks for nothing.Stands for: his own guardedness. Seen when: it blooms for one night and he stays up.
A boy plants the pit of the last peach his grandfather bought him.Stands for: keeping someone. Seen when: he moves the pot to the sunny sill.
A class grows beans in jars, and one girl's is the only one that does not sprout.Stands for: being behind. Seen when: it comes up over the holiday, with nobody there.
A family plants a tree for each child, and one grows crooked toward the road.Stands for: the child who will leave. Seen when: she ties a swing to its longest branch.
A family's vegetable patch has one row the father plants and nobody else eats.Stands for: the country he left. Seen when: his daughter asks for the recipe.
A girl presses one flower from every place she is sorry to leave.Stands for: goodbyes kept. Seen when: she plants seeds instead.
A greenhouse has one missing pane that lets the weather in.Stands for: a flaw that feeds. Seen when: the plant under it outgrows the rest.
A hedge round a school is clipped into a wall, with one gap the caretaker leaves.Stands for: a rule with mercy in it. Seen when: a late child slips through.
A lawn is kept perfect by a man who never sits on it.Stands for: a life saved for later. Seen when: his grandchildren pitch a tent.
A potted fern has moved with a student through six rented rooms.Stands for: the one constant. Seen when: she plants it in the ground.
A rosebush grows best on the side nobody tends.Stands for: the overlooked child. Seen when: someone at last cuts a rose from that side.
A tree stump in a schoolyard is still used as the meeting place.Stands for: what remains. Seen when: a green shoot comes from its side.
A vine planted the day a shop opened has covered the sign.Stands for: a name no longer needed. Seen when: a stranger finds the shop anyway.
A weed keeps coming up through one crack in a tidy man's driveway.Stands for: what he cannot control. Seen when: it flowers, and he sweeps around it.
A widower waters his wife's tomatoes, though he has never liked them.Stands for: love carried on. Seen when: he gives the first ripe one away.
A window box is the whole garden of a woman on the ninth floor.Stands for: enough. Seen when: she turns down a house with a yard.
An orchard is planted by a woman too old to see it fruit.Stands for: work done for others. Seen when: she labels each tree with a child's name.
Dandelions cover the one lawn on a street of gravel.Stands for: stubborn cheer. Seen when: the street's children come to pick them and wish.
Every sunflower a man plants turns its face to the neighbor's yard.Stands for: envy. Seen when: the neighbor brings over seeds.
Two neighbors share an apple tree whose best branch hangs on the wrong side.Stands for: luck. Seen when: a basket appears on the fence.
Things worn or carried 20
A boy carries a stone in his pocket from the yard of the house he left.Stands for: home. Seen when: he sets it in the new garden wall.
A boy wears a watch far too big, pushed up his arm.Stands for: an inheritance come early. Seen when: he has one link taken out.
A boy wears his older brother's coat with the cuffs turned back.Stands for: a place to grow into. Seen when: he turns one cuff down.
A boy's backpack is twice as heavy as it needs to be.Stands for: being ready for anything. Seen when: he lends out what is in it, one thing at a time.
A coat is never hung up in a new house, only laid over a chair.Stands for: not staying. Seen when: it is found on a hook, and she leaves it there.
A girl wears a team jersey with someone else's name on the back.Stands for: borrowed belonging. Seen when: she scores, and they chant the wrong name.
A girl wears glasses she does not need.Stands for: wanting to be taken seriously. Seen when: she takes them off to see.
A girl's left shoe is always untied.Stands for: being half ready. Seen when: she stops in the middle of a race and ties it.
A grandfather's hat hangs on the hook nearest the door.Stands for: his place in the house. Seen when: a grandson is told he may wear it.
A locket is worn by a woman who has never opened it.Stands for: a question she is afraid of. Seen when: a child asks what is inside.
A man keeps a train ticket in his wallet for a trip he did not take.Stands for: the other life. Seen when: he uses it as a bookmark and loses his place.
A man's lunchbox is the one he carried to school.Stands for: refusing to move on. Seen when: his daughter borrows it.
A paper crown from a birthday is worn for a week.Stands for: a day he does not want to end. Seen when: he puts it on his sister.
A scarf is knitted a little longer every winter and never finished.Stands for: time with someone. Seen when: it is cast off and given.
A teacher wears the same chalk-marked jacket for thirty years.Stands for: constancy. Seen when: the class gives her a new one, and she wears the old one over it.
A walking stick is carried by a man who does not lean on it.Stands for: his father. Seen when: he finally puts his weight on it.
A woman brings a second pair of shoes to every party.Stands for: an exit kept ready. Seen when: she leaves them in the car.
A woman carries an umbrella every day of a dry summer.Stands for: expecting the worst. Seen when: she lends it, and is caught in the rain, and laughs.
A woman wears her mother's ring on a chain and never on her hand.Stands for: a role she is not ready for. Seen when: the chain breaks at the sink.
An apron has two pockets, and one is sewn shut.Stands for: a habit given up. Seen when: the stitches are picked out.
Things about the house 20
A bathtub in a garden is used as a planter.Stands for: a new use for an old thing. Seen when: frogs move in.
A bookshelf has one book shelved spine inward.Stands for: a thing known and unsaid. Seen when: it is turned round.
A boy sleeps under an empty top bunk.Stands for: the brother he wishes for. Seen when: a cousin comes for the summer.
A chair at the head of a table is kept empty out of habit.Stands for: an authority gone. Seen when: the youngest sits in it.
A coat rack by a classroom door has one hook with no name tag.Stands for: room for someone. Seen when: a new girl arrives in March.
A cracked teacup is the one a grandmother always chooses.Stands for: loyalty to the imperfect. Seen when: a guest is given it as an honor.
A curtain is kept closed on the best view in the house.Stands for: saving the good thing. Seen when: a guest opens it without asking.
A doorbell plays a tune chosen by the people who lived there before.Stands for: a home not yet theirs. Seen when: the children learn to sing along.
A family photo on a mantel is turned a few degrees toward the wall.Stands for: an argument. Seen when: a hand straightens it in passing.
A fireplace is bricked up and still has its tools beside it.Stands for: warmth remembered. Seen when: a child asks what the poker is for.
A kitchen table has one leg propped on a folded letter.Stands for: making do. Seen when: someone unfolds it.
A lamp is left on in a front window every night.Stands for: waiting. Seen when: it is off, and the door is open.
A mirror in a hallway is hung too high for the children.Stands for: growing up. Seen when: one of them sees the top of her own head.
A night light stays in the room of a boy who says he is too old for it.Stands for: childhood let go slowly. Seen when: he gives it to the baby.
A piano is kept tuned in a house where no one plays.Stands for: readiness for joy. Seen when: the tuner is asked to stay and play.
A porch has two rocking chairs, and one has never been sat in.Stands for: a welcome waiting. Seen when: the new neighbor is asked to try it.
A quilt is made of every shirt a boy has outgrown.Stands for: who he has been. Seen when: he finds the square he hated and laughs.
A staircase has one step that everyone in the family skips.Stands for: a subject avoided. Seen when: a visitor steps on it, and it holds.
A wall in a rented room keeps the pale squares of someone else's pictures.Stands for: living in another's life. Seen when: she hangs one frame off the square.
An attic window is the only one in the house that faces the sea.Stands for: a wish kept out of the way. Seen when: a bed is carried up.
How it works
A good symbolism story idea starts with a thing, not a meaning. Each of these 100 premises is built round one object; the line under it says what the object stands for and the scene where the reader sees it.
Read the full guide
Short story ideas with symbolism
A short story carries one symbol comfortably, so each premise has one: a key nobody uses, a coat never hung up, a chair kept empty. Put the object in the first paragraph, doing an ordinary job. Seen when is the single scene where someone moves it, mends it or gives it away.
Which object for which meaning
Keys, doors and gates are about who is let in. Clocks and calendars are about time that will not be held. Gardens and growing things go on without anyone's leave. Things worn or carried travel with one person; things about the house belong to a whole family.
Never have a character say what the object means. Let a hand do it.
Bring the object back several times and it becomes a motif: a detail repeated for its meaning.
Questions and answers
What is symbolism in a story?
In the arts, symbolism uses something concrete to stand for a more abstract idea. In these premises the concrete element is always an object: a lamp left on in a front window stands for waiting.
What are some examples of symbolism in a short story?
From this list: a boy wears his older brother's coat with the cuffs turned back, and it stands for a place to grow into. A calendar in a workshop still shows the month the business nearly closed.
What is the difference between a symbol and a theme?
A theme is abstract: a message, statement or idea. A symbol is the concrete thing that carries it. Here a family photo turned a few degrees toward the wall is the thing, and an argument nobody has settled is the idea.