To understand why readers desperately seek a of this story (to highlight and cross-reference), one must understand Nabokov’s invented mental illness: Referential Mania .
An elderly couple, referred to only as "the mother" and "the father," travel by streetcar to a sanitarium to visit their son. The visit is denied because the son has had another "attack"—a suicide attempt involving broken lightbulbs and a blanket. Devastated, they return to their dingy Manhattan apartment.
: Deeply saddened by his condition and the poor state of the sanitarium, the father decides they must bring their son home to live with them, despite the challenges it will bring [11, 14]. signs and symbols nabokov pdf
For those searching for a "signs and symbols nabokov pdf" to aid in analysis, two specific elements are usually the subject of the most intense debate: the telephone calls and the photograph of the "fiancée."
: The son suffers from a delusion where everything in the natural world—clouds, trees, pebbles—is a "cipher" containing messages about him [2, 23]. To understand why readers desperately seek a of
: For their son’s birthday, the parents travel to a mental sanitarium to gift him a basket of ten fruit jellies—a choice made because he finds "man-made objects" threatening [1, 14].
They are told they cannot see their son because he has recently attempted suicide again. They return home, defeated. Devastated, they return to their dingy Manhattan apartment
"Signs and Symbols" is often compared to a "perfectly functioning machine of despair." It challenges the reader to find meaning in a world that seems designed to inflict pain on the innocent. Whether the son is a madman or a visionary who sees the "real" truth of a connected universe remains the story’s most haunting question.