Symbolism
In a review of the novel, Professor Wendy Kelleher of Arizona State University states that the book focuses on the fact that "from the stories of Eve's seduction in the Garden of Eden to the present, men and women have chased the forbidden, sacrificing everything else in the bargain". Brooks plays with this fundamental, human instinct through the use of Candy's drug addiction. As the story unfolds, language referring to drug addiction begins to describe Joe's love for Candy. The more Joe becomes involved with Candy, the more Joe becomes obsessed with how Candy makes him feel. In the novel, Joe claims "she fired me up and turned my body inside out...and usually that would have messed me up so much I wouldn't have been able to feel anything, but this time I could feel it". Therefore, Candy's drug addiction mirrors the obsessive love Joe has for her.
Read more about this topic: Candy (Kevin Brooks Novel)
Famous quotes containing the word symbolism:
“...I remembered the rose bush that had reached a thorny branch out through the ragged fence, and caught my dress, detaining me when I would have passed on. And again the symbolism of it all came over me. These memories and visions of the poor—they were the clutch of the thorns. Social workers have all felt it. It holds them to their work, because the thorns curve backward, and one cannot pull away.”
—Albion Fellows Bacon (1865–1933)