The City Light Newspaper Symbol Analysis

The City Light newspaper serves as a symbol of how the media can distort and sensationalize stories—often in the name of increasing sales and entertainment value—in a way that distracts from the truth. Peter Fallow writes for The City Light newspaper and is responsible for breaking the story about Sherman and Maria’s hit-and-run, which initially puts Henry into a coma and ultimately leads to Henry’s death. While Fallow’s stories succeed in attracting attention to the case of the hit-and-run, the novel suggests that the articles do that by portraying an overly simplistic and sensationalistic version of events. The novel takes pains to show how Fallow uses journalistic sleight of hand to portray Henry as an honor student, even though the school he attended and his teachers wouldn’t consider him as such. And Fallow’s perhaps most blameworthy mistake in his articles is that his stories never approach the truth of what actually happened: that Maria was driving the car when it hit and ultimately killed Henry Lamb. Instead, Fallow is content with the villain he has found in Sherman and does not seem to care whether Maria is brought to justice or whether his articles are factually accurate.

Notably, the novel describes The City Light as a tabloid, meaning that the newspaper is known for trafficking in sensational stories. That description, along with Fallow’s concerted effort to write stories that will attract readers even if it means overlooking factual accuracy, underlines the novel’s contention that when the news becomes a form of entertainment instead of a rigorous pursuit of truth, then truth itself is bound to suffer.