I chose to look in depth at Forever.
Symbols are described as relying on conventional usage for meaning. They are constructed for a given purpose. In this story, the biggest symbol that stood out to me was text messages. Since we all use text messaging daily, it’s easy to understand the dialogue and what’s going on through the messages on the screen. Showing us the green messages from one character and gray from the others puts us in that character’s shoes for the story. Also, when the other characters are typing and we get the three dots on the screen it’s showing us, without telling us, that there are responses coming.
Index is described as a point, reference, or suggestion for something else. There are 3 types of indices, tracks, symptoms, and designations. I think the one we see most often in this story is designations. these point or signify something while being distinct from their object. Each of the cut scenes that show us what their missing friend may be up to, can be a designation. When they talk about her being an orange dancer and then show a random video of the girl dancing on oranges, or the scenes where they are looking for her and it shows a variety of places, it’s not necessarily where they are, but it’s indicating a similarity to where they are looking and what they are doing.
Icons are split into three categories as well, Images, metaphors, and diagrams. I think these are all showcased in the story with images being the most prevalent. There are plenty of images in the background of the text that helps us feel emerged into the story.