Iron Box Symbolism

For the first chapter there are many different things that could be a symbol for, “ The Iron Box”, although the way the narrator talked about the town of Haddan reveals that it symbolizes, “The Iron Box” appropriately. Though the students at Haddan came and left, the residents “... stay put; the farthest a resident might move was to a house around the corner when they married…” (Hoffman 37). When the author states that the residents “stay put” in Haddan she is trying to say that no one leaves the town, that the people tend to stay in place. When she also says, when the do move it is “ to a house around the corner” she is getting the point across that no one leaves the town even if they do move it is just around corner. Since no resident leaves the town of Haddan the author reveals that the town of Haddan symbolizes an iron box because no one can leave get out of it. …show more content…
This reveals that the people from the school couldn’t get through the “fence” that separates them from the village and the people from the village couldn’t get through the “fence dividing” them from the School. The reader should understand that since no one could get into group of people from Haddan and the people of Haddan could not leave to go join the group from the school that there is something that separates them from each not letting them anyone leave or enter this reveals that the town of Haddan symbols an iron box because no one can get in or out of the Haddan. The village was very small only about ”... three blocks long, and, for some residents, contained the whole world” When the author wrote “contained the whole world” (Hoffman 12). She means that though the village is fairly small it was all the people of Haddan