ABSTRACT
For Roland Barthes, whose essay on the Eiffel Tower begins this chapter, the Eiffel Tower is a “pure” signifier that attracts attempts to understand its meaning and symbolic significance “the way a lightning rod attracts thunderbolts.” His use of metaphor is particularly telling, since the interpretations by scholars of the meanings of the Eiffel Tower are so numerous that writing that it is like a lightning rod helps us understand one aspect of the role this structure plays in French life. It is a lightning rod for analyses and interpretations of the significance of the Eiffel Tower by scholars with many different points of view about its symbolic significance and cultural meaning.
