Are You For Or Against Symbolism?

Are you one of those people that think every period, every commas was put there by that writer for a reason? Do you think symbolism is a real thing and that people should put as much weight into symbolism as they do? Not to say that it's not real, or course it is, but do you think we have now found better ways to express our emotions and get points across then through symbolism? When I read a book, writers from today actually make me feel what they are describing. Writers like Nathanial Hawthorn make me feel nothing because I'm always having to follow through the maze to find the answers. I feel it takes away from the experience. It seems like a game English teachers invent. My teacher was saying that a red sofa means sex because red is for passion. If I read red sofa in a book, I think nothing of it. So what do you think about all this symbolism? Do you understand it? What's the real purpose of it?

Are You For Or Against Symbolism?
I hate symbolism. When I read the Great Gatsby in AP english years ago, my teacher was always saying that everything was symbolism. It was very annoying and made me hate the book. I don't beleive that authors mean for everything in their book to be symbolism. Maybe some of it, but I think the academics just think too much about it.
Reply:I love symbolism, if it's used correctly and not in every other aspect of the book. I don't know about that red couch, thing, I would never make that connection. Maybe your teacher's a perv...


But I agree, I don't like symbolism if it's like Nathaniel Hawthorn's. He gets a little too into it.
Reply:?
Reply:I believe in accidental symbolism. Readers can find symbolism to suit a need. Authors would need a lifetime to insert symbols in the required web that readers percieve.
Reply:i leave symbolism to the symbol minded
Reply:I am for it but i am A writer so my opinion might not be the most perfact