Martin
How many geniuses have gone completely unknown because their innate skills did not match in the luck of the draw their isolation and alienation from the forces of industry which could make them famous? Martin is scientifically gifted beyond argument. But it is sheer luck that his talents managed to match up perfectly with opportunity. In this sense—which is directly addressed in the Author’s Note at the end of the book—Martin is the symbolic stand-in for all those geniuses who did not possess merely of modicum of talent at being lucky.
Pony
That the pony of the title remains named simply Pony is quite telling. The titular equine hero is more than mere horse; Pony is a mystery that is not to be dismissed, disbelieved, or deconstructed. The things Pony does make no logical or rational sense and the animal certainly would not belong in a more realistic story. But this is not intended as realism; it is as much a mystical fable as historical fiction. Pony is the great symbol of the novel’s foundation: even in the modern age of constant scientific discoveries, not everything is explicable.
The Woods
Also in the after post-narrative text situated at the end is the author’s vision of the symbolic meaning of the Woods. According to the Author’s Note, the Woods are intended to represent “an ancient, impenetrable place” that draws inspiration from the long history of atrocities which took place in the wooded areas of white settlements in the genocidal spread across the continent.
“Daguerrotype by Lightning”
Before the story even begins, the reader learns that Silas—though it isn’t immediately made clear that it is Silas—sports an image of tree burned permanently into flesh like a tattoo that was the consequence of making the really bad decision to seek shelter from lightning beneath an expansive tree. This is image is described as “daguerreotype by lightning” and documented as “yet another wondrous curiosity of science” which also suggests its symbolic significance. In addition to scientific knowledge co-existing with the scientifically inexplicable, there is also the fundamentally ironic fact that the very science which is capable of producing great pain or devastating death can also produce great beauty or serve to improve the quality of life.
Mittenwool
The near-constant companion of Silas is the ghostly presence that that can be seen and heard only by him. (Well, almost only.) That nobody else can prove the existence of Mittenwool has the effect of enhancing the view toward the state of Silas’ imagination: he must have a really active one to be so committed to the existence of his obviously imaginary friend. That Mittenwool does actually prove to exist later in the book does nothing to undo this element of that existence. Silas turns out to possess an even greater imagination by virtue of Mittenwool being real than if he were merely a figment. After all, it must certainly take someone with an already highly developed sensitivity to accepting things others say aren’t possible to deal so rationally at such a tender age with such a potentially terrifying circumstance.
