Symbolism Symbolism What will we learn What Is

Symbolism

Symbolism What will we learn? What Is a Symbol? Where Do We Get Symbols? Symbols in Literature Practice Identifying Symbols

What Is a Symbol? A symbol is an ordinary object, event, person, or animal to which we have attached a special meaning.

Where Do We Get Symbols? Public symbols • have been inherited, or handed down over time • are widely known • show up in art and literature Note

Where Do We Get Symbols? What does each of these symbols stand for? Why do you think they have taken on the meanings they have? justice love luck

Where Do We Get Symbols? Invented symbols • come about when writers make a character, object, or event stand for some human concern • sometimes become well known and gain the status of public symbol

Symbols in Literature Writers use symbols to • suggest layers of meaning that a simple, literal statement could never convey • speak more powerfully to the reader’s emotions and imagination • make their stories rich and memorable

Practice A. Think about the great number of symbols we’re surrounded by in everyday life. For starters, identify what the items below stand for. Then, see if you can explain the basis for the symbol—why is this symbol appropriate for what it stands for? • A snake • An owl • An eagle • A white flag • Spring

Symbols in Literature Quick Check The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it. . An épergne or centrepiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; . . . I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it. . “What do you think that is? ” she asked me, again pointing with her stick; “that, where those cobwebs are? ”. . . “It’s a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!” from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens What might the cake symbolize in this passage? What is your emotional response to the description of the cake?

Practice-Exit Ticket B. Here is a brief poem that works on two levels: a literal level and a symbolic level. A fen is a swampy place. What does the fen symbolize in this poem? Explain your answer. I May, I Might, I Must If you will tell me why the fen appears impassable, I then will tell you why I think that I can get across it if I try. —Marianne Moore

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