In Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis, the symmetry between the dialog at two dinner parties helped drive the meaning home with an impact that’s lasted long after I’ve forgotten the rest of the book. In one, Babbitt is the better traveled, having been to New York, and while the dinner guest gushes about dreams of seeing New York, all Babbitt can say about he city are his favorite places to eat. For one, it’s a dream, but for the other, it’s become commonplace, and this reflects the difference in status between them. In the parallel scene, the guest is better traveled, having been to Paris, and all she can say about the city are the places she prefers to dine. Again, this reflects the difference in status between the characters. One scene or the other on their own would have meant little. Symmetry creates the meaning.
One of my favorite horror novels of all time was Steven King’s Pet Sematary, which uses its predictability as part of the horror. The knowledge of what will happen is certain, and as a reader, I was desperate to be wrong. He accomplished this in part by having the horrific events play out with a cat first, a little pet symmetry, if you will. This means that what will become of Gage isn’t a mystery, and the knowing creates the horror.
We understand symmetry visually as a reverse repetition, as we see in faces and often in architecture. In storytelling, the plot events that mirror one another carry more impact when placed at structurally significant spots. This rule is nearly absolute when it comes to faces. We expect a face to have two eyes and two ears, but we also expect them to be very particular spots on the face. At the center of all this are the nose and mouth, the midpoint of the face, and when you learn to draw, relationships are demonstrated between the midpoint and the eyes and the midpoint and the ears. The artist can determine with mathematical certainty where to draw the eyes and ears based on measurements made of the midpoint. The more structurally exact literary arts do this as well.
A screenplay is more structurally exact than novel. That was true fifty years ago, when the study of film structure was just beginning. Today, film has become a prisoner to structure, which we won’t get into here, but it’s important to note that these patterns in film predate Save the Cat. As novelists, we need to guard our freedoms, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore symmetry. The power these patterns have over our emotions and our sense of beauty and completeness is too great a tool to throw away.
An example of strict symmetry is chiastic structure. For some background, Chaismus as a literary device refers to repetition in reverse order. Biblically, we see that in the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Politically, John F. Kennedy demonstrated it when he said: “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” Chiastic structure sees this reversal of repetition across entire plots. In the case of the Harry Potter books, it’s been ordered that it stretches across the entire series.
Chiastic structure is also known as ring composition and was pioneered in epic poetry, in works such as The Odyssey. Events build to the midpoint, ABCD, and the events reflect back in opposing order: DCBA. The poem uses the structure on both macro and micro levels, but I’m no Homeric scholar and will leave those details to others. With the film still fresh in my mind, I’ll point out the mirrored circumstances between the cruel host of the cyclops’ cave and the cruel guests back home in Ithica. The theme of feasting repeats throughout the wanderings, again, reflecting back on Penelope’s ordeal. It gives the tale a sense of unity and meaning.
Another point of symmetry within storytelling is the relationship between the plot and subplot, a point you might remember learning in high school when studying Shakespeare, but the symmetrical unity of plot lines continues on in your favorite novels. Now, I don’t know what your personal favorites are, so let’s take a look at a few of mine:
The Master and Margarita
We follow both Satan’s visit to Moscow and Pontius Pilate’s trial of Yeshuah (Jesus) in Jerusalem. The Master (the author of the Jerusalem story) is locked away in a Soviet asylum. The midpoint introduces his novel of Jerusalem and Pilate’s indecisive anguish, and the novel-within-a-novel culminates with Pilate arranging the murder of Judas to assuage his guilt. This mirrors the main story in which the author is institutionalized for writing the truth in an authoritarian state, and the only way Margarita can save him is to become a witch which (oddly) reflects Mathew Levi’s assumption as the ultimate disciple who carries on the work of Yeshua. The Moscow timeline and the Jerusalem timeline mirror each other across the midpoint with authoritarianism crushing an philosopher, and that brings a sense of timelessness to a story satirizing the Soviet literary scene.
Slaughterhouse 5
This is a difficult study both because of the jumps in time and because we have to ask if the story begins with Billy becoming unstuck in time or with Kurt Vonnegut saying there’s nothing clever to be said about a massacre. We can see either one of these as the opening and the ending as Billy’s return to Dresden. The question is answered with the song of a bird which carries no meaning.
The middle chapter is the POW arrival in Dresden. The plot points are Billy arriving clueless at the Battle of the Bulge and their surviving the fire bombing only for Edgar Derby to be executed for looting a teapot.
The midpoint is also Billy living as an exhibit at the Tralfamodore Zoo and learning their concept of time. A person only appears to die but is alive and well at other points in time. For the narrative symmetry, this is the transition from brokenness to survival. It’s how Billy learns to live with his memories. It’s how Vonnegut finds it possible to write about his experience.
There is no meaning to be found in a massacre, but there is survival.
To Kill a Mockingbird
This novel employs the dual storylines of the children’s fear of Boo Radley and their father’s serving as the defense attorney in the trial of Tom Robinson.
The story opens with the children’s mythical reasons for fearing Boo Radley and it closes with Boo saving Scout. Sometimes, when people talk about symmetry in storytelling, the end reflecting on the beginning is as far as it goes. The midpoint of the story is Atticus shooting the rabid dog. The symmetry is a thematic progression from a mythical fear to real bravery to finding the real bravery in the man they’d feared.
The second symmetry begins with plot point one, Atticus accepting Tom’s case. The midpoint is still him shooting the rabid dog, but this time it’s more about being a reluctant defender. Plot point two is the undeserved but seemingly inescapable guilty verdict.
We have five points we’re working with, but the symmetry needn’t carry directly across them. That midpoint, however, is doing double duty. It’s a transformational moment in how the kids understand both their father and the nature of the world around them.