Favorite objects/entities that carry the bulk of the thematic weight in a novel?

By copperThread1972

Has anyone here got a go-to pick for this kind of thing? Like the physical object (or whatever) that kind of carries most of the weight in a novel—examples like the rocket in *Gravity’s Rainbow*, the monster in *Frankenstein*, the white whale in *Moby-Dick*. For me, I’d say Aristotle’s Humors in Eco’s *The Name of the Rose* is a top contender. I think a lot of the adult role models I had growing up really influenced me in a good way: they were funny, but also super skeptical, and that combo has basically stayed with me and steers how I see stuff. So anything that plays with humor as both freeing and kind of unsettling, plus knowledge challenging the big official power structure, really landed. Also, the whole “ancient joke book, but make it a murder weapon” idea is just… honestly hilarious to me.