The symbolism of subterranean lairs in stories has been in our literature and film since the very first griots casts their stories to rapt tribal circles. Even before man first built structures that contained basements, the symbol of the basement played as as forests hidden deep within the woods.
From E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, to Alice Munro’s Free Radicals & Cortes’ Island, to Stephen King’s It & Carrie and Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs - basements tie into our innermost fears and also our safest spaces.
In my novel A Blind Eye, Rueben spends much of his time in the basement with his pets, and creates new friendships with the rats in the walls as he spins fables of princess’s and country mice. Is he there for a play space or is he being hidden?
When Santos & Jonah are thrown out after burning down the shed, their older brother Nene takes them in, but makes Santos stay in the basement when he discovers he is gay. The basement in this instance (State of the Nation, my first novel), symbolizes how society casts aside our ‘misfits’, and they live outside the heteronormative gaze.
For a great exploration of on cellars, basements, and attics in literature, check out th awesome blog: SLAP HAPPY LARRY https://www.slaphappylarry.com/basement-cellar-symbolihttsm/
photo credit: D4rkharlequin