Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a book and thought, what is the author trying to tell me? For instance, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy ends on a downer (book and film), but there is actually a rich story and extended metaphor to watch out for in both forms of the story. This is actually a form of symbolism, in which one thing stands for another. Thus, it’s important to focus on close reading techniques for symbolism.