(image courtesy TS Sheng via Wikimedia Commons)

O is for Objective Correlative.

Whoa. Hold on there just a minute. At seven syllables, objective correlative sounds like some high-falutin’ scientific term you need about three Ph.D’s to decipher. Or maybe objective correlative is some nasty parasite lurking in your lower intestines.

Nope.

The poet T.S. Eliot defined objective correlative as “a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of…emotion” (Lit Reactor).

You know what it is, you just don’t know you know.

Example: Cinderella’s shoe.

It’s the last thing Fairy Godmother gifts poor, downtrodden Cinderella. We next see the glass slipper at the ball peeking from beneath Cinderella’s gown as she dances. We see it on the steps as she runs away. We see it in the prince’s messenger’s hand as he combs the countryside for the wearer. Stepmother and stepsisters cannot fit the shoe. Only at the last minute due to the messenger’s perseverance (and this all heightens the emotional tension), Cinderella emerges to claim the glass slipper.

So, the shoe represents escape and equilibrium. Cinderella keeps on walkin’ until she finds her rightful place in the world.

And the emotions of that chain of events? Desire + Loss + Hope = Joy (and maybe a few tears).

Speaking of tears, I think the best examples of objective correlative can be found in the Budweiser Clydesdale commercials. Check this one out.

Puppy + Clydesdale + rain + wolf + rescue = waterworks. If you don’t have tears in your eyes after watching that, you’d better don your glass slippers and skip on over to your friendly neighborhood cardiologist to have your heart examined.

What is your favorite example of objective correlative? How about the father-daughter montage of the Toyota Corolla commercial in which he rescues her on the dance floor and later drops her off (she’s now an army recruit) at the airport? Sigh.