I’ve been following the Luigi Mangione case and I find the entire thing fascinating. And I also think this case can tell us about storytelling and more precisely, symbolism. 

There’s a story told through the actions: after assassinating the CEO (very punk rock) the culprit took off on a bike (still, very punk rock), then biked through central park leaving a backpack full of monopoly money for the cops to find. Later, news came out that the assassin wrote the words deny, defy, depose on the shell casings of the bullets that he used to kill. 

What makes this case different from any other random assassination is that there is an aesthetics and a symbolism to it. 

The case itself is immediately interesting because it is so different from anything we experience in the real world, it’s as if the killing had come out of a book or a movie. (The Day of the Jackal anyone?)  

The assassin meticulously thought out the murder and the murder itself was an act of protest.

Here’s the story I see in the events: the murder of a healthcare CEO means the assassin is an underdog who has personally seen the suffering that the healthcare industry exacts on clients (especially when they deny healthcare claims.) The words deny, defy, depose written on the shell casings further this theory that the CEO was murdered because of his ties to the healthcare industry. 

Then we have the Monopoly money. Monopoly was apparently a game created to spread anti-capitalist sentiment, but that’s not why the backpack was filled with Monopoly money. I believe the assassin was trying to point out that United Healthcare is being sued by the US because they’re a monopoly. It’s clear this murder wasn’t a crime of passion, it was targeted against the healthcare industry, and United Healthcare, in particular. It was symbolic. 

Maybe it’s in bad taste, but I believe the symbolism and aesthetics of the assassination shows how any artist can use those tools to aid in storytelling. Already we can infer that the assassin had negative run-ins with the healthcare industry and that this murder was an act of protest. We don’t really need his entire story, the act of the crime already tells us this. 

In writing (and art), you want to talk to the unconscious, and you do that through symbolism. 

What is some symbolism you can imbue in your art? What’s the story you want to tell and what are the objects or events that aid in telling the story?