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Significance of symbolism in literature
Significance of symbolism in literature
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There are many different ways to relate symbols of a book to people in society. The writers of these stories have many different ways of relating their stories to society. The books will include Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer, The Vietnam Wall by Alberto Rios, and The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. Symbols are very common in stories and can often be related to people in todays society. In Once Upon a Time there are many symbols, but some of the symbols are dragon wire (the barb wire fence), alarms, and irony. In today's society many people overprotect themselves which can lead them to be harmed. For example many people do not try things and be adventurous, so in the long run they are more prone to sadness, depression, and maybe even suicide. Secondly are the alarms, in the story alarms are set off so easily, and often that they are overlooked when there actually is a burglary. Individuals today here so many warnings about things that they begin to overlook these warnings. One of these warnings is that smoking is bad for you. People here about so many studies on tobacco and how it causes cancer yet people still overlook this warning and smoke anyway. In the end they purchase the barbed wire to protect their family, including the son. The boy climbs the wall and dies in the dragon wire …show more content…
The names are what brings out the sadness in this story. In todays society sadness can be brought out by multiple things but where it shows most is loss of loved ones. In the story the water is what is shown, as tears and is brought out by the names. Individuals today see crying as a sign of weakness brought out by again, mostly loss of loved ones. lastly the the wall brings sadness, the farther you walk the worse it gets. In today's society many things bring sadness, and the more you think about it, or farther you go often it gets worse. Some examples are divorces, deaths, and
The Pigman by Paul Zindel is a book that has many symbols, and means of those symbols can be explained to the farthest extent. This will talk about some of the many symbols that are used in this story.
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
There are many writers like James Joyce, Patrick Kananach and Thomas Moore who use symbolism to convey and support indirect meaning in their writings. J.D. Salinger and F. Scott Fitzgerald both use symbolism in similar ways. In both “The Catcher In The Rye” and “The Great Gatsby”, the authors used symbolism to convey emotions and reality.
Symbolism is commonly used by authors that make short stories. Guin is a prime example of how much symbolism is used in short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Sur.” In both of these stories Guin uses symbolism to show hidden meanings and ideas. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” there is a perfect Utopian city, yet in this perfect city there is a child locked in a broom closet and it is never let out. A few people leave the city when they find out about the child, but most people stay. Furthermore, in “Sur” there is a group of girls that travel to the South Pole and reach it before anyone else, yet they leave no sign or marker at the South Pole. Guin’s stories are very farfetched and use many symbols. Both “Sur” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have many symbols such as colors, characters, objects, and weather. The four types of symbols that Guin uses help the readers understand the themes in her short stories. Although her stories are farfetched, they need symbolism in them or the reader would not understand the theme; therefore the symbols make Guin’s stories much more enjoyable.
Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a story about a band of patients in a mental ward who struggle to find their identity and get away from the wretched Nurse. As audiences read about the tale, many common events and items seen throughout the story actually represent symbols for the bigger themes of the story. Symbols like the fishing trip, Nurse, and electroshock therapy all emphasize the bigger themes of the story.
In the dystopian novel, Brave New World, Huxley uses symbols to create meaning and to get his agenda across. The use of sex and reproduction, and Shakespearian writing and religious texts, as symbols in the novel help to push Huxley’s agenda that total government control is devastating, and the inner human drive to be an individual can never be suppressed. Also, the fact that the novel was written in 1931 shows that Huxley was attacking the newly forming Socialist nations.
Many authors and poets uses symbolism to express emotion and sections throughout the text. Symbols is a great literary device that can help give messages to the reader without the author being too direct. In the story, “Barns Burning” by William Faulkner, Symbolism helps analysis different emotions and meaning throughout the story.
While reading short stories, two stood out: Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. The themes in both stories are powerful and convey strong messages that really pose existential thoughts. Not only is each story’s theme attention grabbing, but so is the common and reoccurring use of symbolism throughout the stories. They did not just use the Element of Fiction symbolism, but even used one common symbol. Ernest Hemingway’s story Hills Like White Elephants and Raymond Carver’s story Cathedral each contain existential and similar themes such as talking versus communicating and looking versus seeing, as well as demonstrating creative and comparable symbolism throughout.
Lord of the Flies is a novel that is all about symbols that have different powers which is used on the boys. Two of the symbols which are the conch and the sow’s head contain powers that are opposite of each other and they have a great affect on the boys. Lord of the Flies would be a different story without symbols. The conch has the powers that lead to civilization and order. It represents the authority that the boys will need to get rescued from the island. The sow’s head on the other hand represents the evil powers to lead the boys to total chaos and savagery which is created by Jack. Jack has used one of the sow’s head’s symbolism which is the beast to control his group. The conch has a power that is used for order and civilization, while the sow’s head has a power to control evil and savagery.
The phrasing of this poem can be analyzed on many levels. Holistically, the poem moves the father through three types of emotions. More specifically, the first lines of the poem depict the father s deep sadness toward the death of his son. The line Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy creates a mental picture in my mind (Line 1). I see the father standing over the coffin in his blackest of outfits with sunglasses shading his eyes from the sun because even the sun is too bright for his day of mourning. The most beautiful scarlet rose from his garden is gripped tightly in his right hand as tears cascade down his face and strike the earth with a splash that echoes like a scream in a cave, piercing the ears of those gathered there to mourn the death of his son.
The grandchild “proudly” shows the grandmother the picture hoping to change the negative aura surrounding them. “With crayons the child draws a rigid house and a winding pathway.” (924) As already stated, “house” represents the grandmother. The winding pathway shows a new path opening up in her life. A look into who may be behind this emotional roller coaster is now featured. “Then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears…” (924) Tears to the child have an entirely different meaning than to the grandmother. The grandchild sees happiness in tears, showing that you can find something positive in anything that seems to be upsetting. The man symbolizes the loss the grandmother is feeling. The grandchild drew this picture to cheer up the grandmother. It is at the end of the pome do we find out what tears mean to the grandmother. The grandmother does not acknowledge the drawing and tries to hide her true feelings. While she is doing this, “secretly…the little moons fall down like tears from between the pages of the almanac into the flower bed the child carefully placed in the front of the house.” (924) The grandmother is coming to the realization that dwelling on the past brings will not make her loss return. Regardless of how much of an impact this loss had on her, pain is part of the grieving process. Only though pain
It describes how the conservative farmer follows traditions blindly and the isolated life followed by him. It reflects how people make physical barriers and that later in life come to their social life too. Where neighbor with pine tree, believes that this separation is needed as it is essential for their privacy and personal life. The poem explores a paradox in human nature. The first few lines reflect demolition of the wall, ?Something there is that doesn?t reflect love a wall? this reflects that nature itself does not like separation. The "something" referring to the intangible sense of social interaction. Furthermore "that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it" refers to Frost or to the author. Although the narrator does not want the wall, ironically, the mending of the wall brings the neighbors together and literally builds their friendship. An additional irony of the poem is that the only time these two neighbors sees each other is when they both mend the wall. The narrator sees the stubbornness in his neighbor, and uses the simile 'like an old-stone savage' to compare him to a stone-age man who 'moves in darkness', that is, set in his ways, and who is unlikely to change his views.
The poem contains the central idea that many of these children never understood what home really means. In Native American culture the people venerate earth and it is referred to as mother nature which we see in the poem. The rails cut right through their home but they don’t view them like the average person. They view the tracks as if they are scars across mother earths face and her face is the Native American’s homeland. She is scarred for eternity but she is perfect in their dreams. This symbolism is ironic because the children try to reach home using the railroad that ruined natural life for them and many other Native Americans. In the second stanza the speaker says “The worn-down welts of ancient punishments lead back and fourth” (15-16). Which can be talking about the marks on the children’s bodies after getting caught while running away. But the “word-down welts” can also symbolize the welts that were put on mother nature throughout history. The last five lines of the poem sums up the symbol of hope through their memories and dreams. The last line of the poem says, “the spines of names and leaves.” (20-24). The “spines” symbolize the physical strength of the children and their ability to maintain hope individually “names”, and for their tribe
Symbolism provides an indirect proposal to convey one’s feelings and state of mind. It offers an opportunity for the writer to deepen the reader’s emotional outlook of the characters presented in the story. Symbolism allows one to under stand the character in a deeper manner and unfold a hidden meaning of who the character is and what the conflict is in the story. From the characters, we can learn through symbolism more about them. In “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison, the young African American views himself as being praised and chanted by the white folks for a speech that he has delivered, but in reality he is being mocked. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family vacation turned into a murder scene where the grandmother
The focus of the film Memento is the story of Leonard Shelby who suffers from short term memory loss. Leonard suffers from short term memory loss because of injury from one of his wife’s killers. The film focuses on Leonard hunting for the killer of his wife with Leonard also fighting his memory problems at the same time. The editing of the film was done very well and added much to the story. The film begins at the end which causes the audience to attempt to piece the story together all by themselves. The film’s music adds to the bleak and dark story of the film. One symbol that stood out to me is the use of tattoos by Leonard. The tattoos in a way are part of Leonard’s brain, they allow him to remember his current task at hand. An example