Symbolism In First Stone

“In a social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” said Erik Erikson, a psychologist known for his theory on the psychosocial development of humans. Reef Kennedy is a trouble-making orphan who hangs out with his friends, Bigger and Jink, vandalizing buildings and getting in trouble with the law. A ruined childhood from losing his parents and grandparents puts Reef in a hopeless position that he will have to dig himself out of and find his true identity. |He tries to rebuild his life by helping other people, but realizes he was the center of the accident all along. In the novel First Stone by Don Aker, Reef shows how true identity affects the actions of a human being, proving it with character

The first type of symbolism shown in the novel is the stone Reef received from his grandmother which she referred as a sick stone. Furthermore, Reef’s grandmother gave him a stone when he got car sick during a ride, she said, “When you feel like you’re gonna throw up, just squeeze it hard. It’ll take the sick feeling away”(33). The stone is a symbol that rounds out the novel and contributes greatly to the plot, and impacts both of the main characters, Reef and Leeza. First, Reef uses stones to cope with his stress of life in general, and moreover to allow him to get emotional over the loss of his grandmother. Second, Leeza got struck by the stone which Reef throws and it hits the windshield of Leeza’s car, putting her in a car accident. Then there are imaginary symbols, which are only visualized from dreams and memories. Just like when Leeza remembered Ellen in the same position when in the hospital, the sprinklers that Brett pointed out, “Up there, the sprinkler to the left. That was my focal point. When the pain got too much for me, I’d concentrate on that one thing. Sometimes it worked”(92). Symbols are everywhere, from sprinklers in a hospital to a stone to even a imaginary or passed person, they all have meaning and impacts the characters mentally and