Em-Dash

[MyMyMyGirl]

Here's the sentence:

"Benjamin is her friend, her beloved — a symbol of what is important to her, and someone to be protected."

Quote:

Take a look at the structure of the sentence in which it is contained, the abrupt hyphen to a conclusion indicates the last clause is a summation of the previous clause, same as the AC playback uses it when it says 'Jack, Mary, Belle- His family was waiting' to sum up that these three people are Benjamin's family.

So the things that come before are things Benjamin is a symbol of, and a thing cannot be a symbol just itself. A rose cannot symbolize a rose. Now, if it said 'Benjamin was all these things to her' you would be correct, but these are things Benjamin symbolizes. He symbolizes friends, her lover, everything she wants to protect, even though he is not these things (and a note here, you CAN be a part of a group that you symbolize, so that a rose can symbolize many roses, so Benjamin can be a friend and symbolize friends plural).

So Unless Benjamin is part of a group of beloveds, he cannot be the beloved he symbolizes.

Is this really saying that Benjamin isn't her friend or lover but instead a symbol of her friends and lover?

I'm confused. sweatdrop  

[Jerba]

The dash does not indicate a contradiction. The first part of the sentence is true, and the second part elaborates on it.