Frindle
In the book, “frindle” becomes an invented synonym for “pen.” In reality, frindle is a multi-faceted symbol. For one thing, it symbolizes Nick’s inventiveness. When it is co-opted and trademarked by someone else, it becomes a symbol of the many ways in which the business world sticks it to the creative world. By becoming an actual word in the dictionary, frindle comes to symbolize seemingly unstoppable forces of change in the world.
Computers
The book was published in 1996, right about the time when computers in the home had transformed from a novelty to a commonplace, but had not yet become a necessity. As such, they represent those forces of change in the world that might be capable of being stopped, but most likely couldn't be and which people must therefore get out of the way before they are run over and displaced into oblivion.
Mrs. Granger's Fountain Pen
The maroon fountain pen so prized by Mrs. Granger works as a symbol in conjunction with computers, VCRs, CDs and all the other things which did not exist or were not part of everyday life when she first started teaching. The fountain pen is symbolic of those times when one need not step out of the way to avoid being crushed by forces of change. A fountain pen is old-fashioned and representative of a bygone era and those things which have become obsolete, but it still does the same job just as effectively as a ballpoint, gel or roller point frindle…er, pen.
Sunrise
In the letter Mrs. Granger writes to Nick at the novel’s conclusion, she observes how…
“A person can watch the sunrise, but he cannot slow it down or stop it or make it go backward.”
While both the sunrise and the course of “frindle” on its way to the dictionary seem equally inevitable and inexorable, the symbolism here definitively clears up the distinction. It was always theoretically possible at some point that some course of action could have blunted the momentum of the “frindle” phenomenon even if it couldn’t actually stop it completely. The future of frindle was never set so firmly in stone that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. But just as humans are literally unable to stop the sun from rising, so too are they in some cases so figuratively incapable of stopping forces of change that it might as well be a literal incapacity.
The Dictionary
The most robust symbol in the story is the dictionary. Mrs. Granger implicates the underlying meaning of this symbol when she asserts: “the dictionary is the law.” Fountain pens transform into ballpoint points; records transform in CDs; the television as the centerpiece of home entertainment transforms into the computer. Nothing lasts forever which means there is little opportunity for constancy in the world and constancy is especially essential for young children needing stability and order. The dictionary is the law where the purpose is to maintain constancy through universal acceptance that definitions may be entirely arbitrary and ultimately symbol of pure anarchy, but it is also essential to keeping the world from falling into actual anarchy through the loss of the ability to communicate easily and establish order, rules and conventions allow society to cohere and thrive.
