The objective correlative is a fantastic technique that you can use to create emotion in your writing. It empowers writers to move away from abstraction (i.e. using direct words like angry, sad, or afraid, which are abstract to the reader) and color a character's emotion with imagery, metaphor, and meaning.

What does an objective correlative do?

The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is ...

Is objective correlative symbolism?

Simply put, an objective correlative is an object in the story that serves a symbolic purpose. It's an everyday item that possesses some thematic presence, or conjures an image, or jukes an emotional response from the reader, implying a meaning larger than what is actually there.