Why symbolic? A picture is worth ten thousand words! And, with the added details, it would be difficult for the human mind to forget. Again, John’s day would not have had today’s vocabulary in vogue. God wants us to relate to these accounts when they unfold right in front of our eyes. The events that are destined to happen late in time - at the time of the end - could not have been explained by human language of the time of John. There would be new terminologies and jargon by that time. Robots, Computers, Missiles!