What is black and white and read all over?

"Here's the problem with symbols: people expect them to mean something. Not just any something, but one something in particular" (Foster 97).
100% true statement. Symbols have different meanings to different people. One pet peeve of mine is when someone tells me I am not right because of their sdifferent perception of the same symbol. If I have evidence to support and they have evidence to support, there is no reason one of us is wrong. Clearly if the author is good, a symbol can have multiple meanings so it reaches a unique audience, not just targeting one genre.
Symbols often make a story worth reading. They wouldn't be symbols if it meant exactly one thing. The writer might as well just specify and TELL what it means instead of leaving it open to interpretation and discussion.