Stranger Than Fiction: Personality And Symbolism In Stranger Than Fiction

The human brain is known to elapse into overdrive when faced with uncertainty, as it is equipped to recoil in fear of the unknown. The less information given, the more irrational and arbitrary decisions become. However, there are proven tactics that improve the quality of resolutions when emotion can be clouding judgement. The film, “Stranger than Fiction”, demonstrated through symbolism and irony that when an individual tackles uncertainty with intuition and a focus on what they can control, the outcome will usually occur above expectations in response to the individuals maturity and confidence.
One of the main literary elements employed in the film to depict the main idea was symbolism. The cigarettes Kay constantly inhaled throughout the movie actually symbolized many deeper meanings. At the beginning of the movie, she leaves half-smoked cigarettes throughout her apartment while attempting to finish her book even surprised her assistant Penny when she blatantly stated, “and I suppose you smoked all these cigarettes?”(20). The cigarettes laying around represented her frustration and constant discarding of ideas, as she is concerned her ending will not be significant to readers.

Symbolism was employed throughout the film to highlight the importance of sticking with instinct while facing uneasiness in decision making. Characterization was also and important literary element which demonstrated how fixating a substantial amount of time and effort into what is manageable and looking forward in life in order to be surrounded with ease and better a situation. The ability to strategically create sound decisions in environments that are filled with uncertain situations is crucial throughout life, and following simple methods will pave the path to