Vietnam Wall Essay

Symbolism when used accordingly, can give authors the power to captivate readers with a single sentence, but how is it used? Before understanding the use of symbolism, it is important to distinguish what it is. Symbolism is taking an object or idea and giving it a much deeper, significant meaning. Learning how to correctly and entrancingly symbolize can have a reader hooked on every single word, start to finish. Now knowing what symbolism is, and how to use it, exploring the different ways the authors have been infatuating their reader from word one with the theme of unity will be much easier.
“Vietnam Wall” has a substantial amount of symbolism, and is a perfect example on the appropriate ways to use it. In the poem “Vietnam Wall”, the structure of the poem itself can be an act of symbolism. At first, the pronouns used were I and them and it was written as a single person with one point of view. However, towards the end of the poem, the author started using the pronouns we and us. This symbolizes that although people might go in alone into whatever life throws, in this case war, they will always come out together and united. “Vietnam Wall” continues to intrigue its readers and display the theme of unity with this emotional symbolism.

Along with “Vietnam Wall”, “Quilt of a Country” is a great example of symbolism considering the title itself is a symbol.

Anna Quindlen is making the point that America is on, big quilt. While the quilt as a whole represents America, the individual pieces represent the individuals that make up America. No matter the different shapes, colors, and designs on these individual scraps of fabric, they can all come together and make something beautiful. This goes to show that regardless of how different people are, it is possible to unite and make an extraordinary thing. Symbolism can be an important part of making a good story great, Anna Quindlen knew that and managed to use it to her advantage to display unity in “Quilt of a

Country”.
Although “Quilt of a County” and “Vietnam Wall” are both great examples of symbolism and using it to support the theme of unity ,”Once Upon a time” is the best. Everything in this story was a symbol for something, from the little boy to the cat. Although very subtly, both of these symbols express the importance of unity. The boy represents innocence, looking a t dangerous things and thinking it is a toy. The vat represents freedom, having the ability to come and go as he pleases until being trapped. The more the family isolated themselves, the less the cat could move, symbolizing freedom being removed if not kept unified. The little boy, innocence, represented the dangers of being isolated. While dangerous mechanisms were being put up to keep the family from the outside world, he would play with them. Playing with these eventually ended up killing the boy, killing innocence. Not being united can cause freedom and innocence to wither. “Once Upon a Time” is a perfect example of using symbolism to support the theme of unity.
As symbolism is very important, it is a good thing that all of the stories gave a good grasp on using it. Using ideas and objects to create a deeper meaning is a great way to get a point across in an imitative way. The structure in “Vietnam Wall”, the title in “Quilt of a County”, and the boy and cat in “Once Upon a Time” are all great examples, and all of these examples support the theme of unity. Strong symbolism is very insightful and all of these authors use that to their advantage when supporting the idea of unison.