In the short story “Signs and Symbols,” Vladmir Nabokov tempts the reader with the story of a concerned elderly couple who visit their mentally unstable son on his birthday in sanatorium. This visit is further complicated by the son's suicide attempt, which forces the sanatorium's hospital staff to prevent the parents from meeting their son. This circumstance then embarks on the difficult journey that was the life of this mother and father of their mentally disturbed child. Nabokov delivers a touching story to his readers and does so through: character illustration, setting, and keeps the reader's interest by presenting the story in a suspenseful way that leaves the reader thirsting for more. Nabokov presents the reader with three touching characters of mother, father and son. The characters in the story arouse a feeling of compassion and sympathy in the reader due to the helpless situation they find themselves in. For example, the son in the story suffers from a condition called "referential mania." Referential mania is a case where “the patient imagines that everything that happens around him is a veiled reference to his personality and his existence” (1166). In other words, the son has this perception where he is in a state of paranoia where he feels like the objects around him are evil and plotting against him. He feels like “the clouds in the starry sky transmit signs detailing information about him, the coats in the shop windows have a distorted opinion of him and misinterpret his actions…. he must always be on guard every minute and part of his life to decode the ripple. things” (1167). The son is still on a mission with the objects trying to decipher the meaning behind why these objects are...... middle of paper ......e calls it the death of the son, but in this case it is the parents the victims of deformations throughout the day? There is no real evidence that the last phone call actually came from the hospital, again an error. What makes the story particularly interesting is that through this confusion and the presence of signs and symbols throughout the story, the reader is challenged to decode the ending of the mysterious phone call and to search for answers. The struggle the mother and father faced raising their mentally unstable son makes the story particularly unique. The characters in the story make them relatable people because they have strong emotion towards their son and the reader can feel comfortable with the couple as if the mother and father in the story were the reader's parents..