In my story, symbolism is the very basis of how the world works. That should serve as an answer by itself, but I'll say more.
Symbols are an amazing way to say things without making them obvious. Most people use some form of that without even knowing, but done properly it can say a lot more than any detailed description. From something like using a skull for a pirate's flag (even that is a symbol, I believe) all the way to basing powers and personalities of characters on certain symbols, like Chainsaw Man does.
It has a lot to do with human psychology, but I haven't learnt much about it so I can only speak in general terms here. Point is, when a human sees color red, they automatically make certain connections depending on their memories and experiences. The same thing's with names, for example how the human emperor in The Reincarnation of Alysara is named Alexander. Everyone who's heard that name a couple of times knows what that name is associated with, and it was used well (perhaps unintentionally, I don't know) to make readers look at a character in a certain way.
Personally, I found out symbols are great when you want to say something that can't be conveyed in a few words. That's why, when writing my story, I did not try to come with a mess of skills and other useless stuff to give my main character the powers I want her to have, but I gave her a skill called Amaranth. You can guess what it does, and I bet you'll be at least partially right - that's the point.
