The Story of Story

Symbols of atmosphere react with “adjacent” symbols, but in a non-linear fashion. Linearity can be enforced (for example, by making characters “run a gauntlet”), but this is itself an expression of atmosphere. Non-linearity is good for making statements, but bad for advancing arguments. Is there some other way that symbolism can be introduced such that it can be structured in a linear (and therefore more contributory) fashion?