: Re: Using a town to symbolize/represent a character within a story (fiction)? I'm not sure if this has been done before. In my story, the main character's wife takes the form of a town. The town

@Fox6458700

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Exploring how we relate to a city, how the city represents the desires and feelings of the people that designed and built it, how we relate to various parts of the city, how the city affects mood and perception is probably uncommon. Even more uncommon is to relate that to a person, but I think it could be done.

Assuming that your story takes place within roughly the past 40 years - specifically at a time when graffiti and other forms of urban expression started to appear, you could relate the town to the wife through expressions of graffiti. For example, your character could wander the streets and come across some graffiti that expresses frustration with 'the system' and use that as a segue to thinking about his wife.

If your story is in the distant past during times of monarchy, you could have a king/prince/other noble-person build-out the town/city as his relationship with his wife changes. For example, when initially attracted to his to-be-wife, he has builders create a waterway that meanders through and caresses the town's features. Later, when the couple has kids, he could have builders create places that nurture family values like parks, statue gardens, boulevards, libraries, etc. When the relationship gets rocky, he could have his builders create jails, or demolish slums, or maybe build up an army (things that express frustration and try to compensate). You could relate these aspects of the town to the wife's physical appearance, personality traits, etc. Obviously, making the connection effective is critical.

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