Literary Elements: Symbol

1
Literary ElementsSymbol

• A symbol is a thing that suggests more than its
  literal meaning (Kennedy Gioia 217).

2
Allegory

• Symbol is different from allegory, a story in
  which persons, places and things form a system of
  clearly labeled equivalents (Kennedy Gioia
  217).
• In allegory, there is a one-to-one relationship,
  i.e., X stands for Y. For example, one famous
  allegory is John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress. In
  this work the hero, Christian, takes a journey to
  the Heavenly City, meeting characters along the
  way with names such as Piety and Mr. Worldly
  Wiseman. The characters are flat with no real
  depth and stand only for the concept of piety or
  wisdom. The journey represents the pilgrimage
  which every Christian must make to gain
  salvation.
• Allegory is rare these days. Another famous
  example of one is seen in George Orwells Animal
  Farm, in which different animals represent
  particular political systems.

3
Symbols Suggest

• Symbols tend toward multiple meanings or
  possibilities.
• Symbols suggest rather than stand for (Kennedy
  and Gioia 217).
• Symbols are expansive, opening up meaning and
  giving a work depth, while allegories are
  reductive, forcing an element to represent one
  idea alone (Birkerts 115).
• Kennedy and Gioia explain that Symbols generally
  do not
• stand for any one meaning, nor for anything
  absolutely definite they point, they hint, or,
  as Henry James put it, they cast long shadows
  (217).

4
Examples of symbols

• In Susan Glaspells A Jury of Her Peers, the
  canary is itself a pet bird, but it also seems to
  stand for Mrs. Wright, of the sweet singing
  voice, caged and finally (spiritually) killed.
• In Nathaniel Hawthornes The Birthmark,
  Georgiannas birthmark is itself but may also be
  seen as a concrete illustration of the
  imperfection of physical humanity, an
  imperfection which Aylmer, in his quest to play
  God and control nature, cannot accept.
• In Stephen Cranes The Open Boat, the boat is
  itself but is also a symbol of the larger world
  (a small world microcosm) in which a
  community of men must grapple with the forces of
  nature.

5
Two Kinds of Symbols

• Conventional or traditional symbols These
  symbols have meanings that large numbers of
  people understand. They embody universal
  suggestions of meaning, such as that a voyage
  suggests life or flowing water suggests time and
  eternity (Symbol 467). Can you guess what the
  visual symbols below stand for?
• Depending on ones own cultural background, she
  might answer that these are three of the letter
  t. Or he might say that they are the masts of a
  ship. If one has been raised in a Judeo-Christian
  culture, however, its highly likely that that
  person might see three crosses here,
  representative of the Crucifixion of Jesus and of
  salvation.
• In the course assignments, I have organized the
  sections in a general subject format gender,
  nature, family, and so on. But the theme of Jack
  Londons To Build a Fire is not simply
  nature. Instead one might want to formulate a
  complete sentence about the relationship of man
  and nature.

6
More conventional symbols which may be expressed
as words or pictures

• a flag for country (the flag)
• Go Hogs!
• Red Razorback for the University of Arkansas
• an X at the end of a letter for a kiss XXX
• (smack!)
• spring as the symbol of new beginnings
• a slash line through a sign for
  NO,
• as in No Parking.

7
Two Kinds of Symbols (continued)

• Private or original symbols These kinds of
  symbols may be relative, dependent upon the
  beholder or upon how they are used in a work.
• The park bench where you metthe one you love is
  a private symbolwhich you interpret privately.
• The empty space on the wall where the picture
  once was could be a private symbol of personal
  loss for one person, while for another the
  lighter shade of that space simply indicates that
  a wall needs to be painted.
• In fact, a symbol may shift in meaning as the
  work develops. Private symbols acquire meaning
  because of the ways they are used in a literary
  work (Symbol 467). Critic Sven Birkerts writes
  that private symbols gain their meaning
  gradually, through repetition or strategic
  placement and that they have powerful,
  condensed meanings (Symbolism 113).

8
More private or original symbols

• WAKE UP!
• A gun, for example, may represent destruction,
  but it may also be interpreted as a symbol of
  sexual potency, Birkerts suggests (113).
• On the other hand, some objects are just and only
  that, themselves that is, a gun is simply a gun
  in a story and is not meant to carry any larger
  meaning. I think maybe it was Sigmund Freud who
  once cried out in exasperation, Sometimes a
  cigar is just a cigar! -)
• One can interpret symbols through recognition of
  their use in patterns, repetition, or strategic
  placement in a work (Birkerts 113). But Sven
  Birkerts warns that symbols are not planted in
  a literary work like radishes and one does not
  simply find them and pluck them free (113).
• Instead, he writes, symbols function as a kind of
  forcefield, sending out waves of suggestion that
  penetrate many layers of the work and add to its
  meaning (Birkerts 113).

9
A look at one symbolthe A in The Scarlet
Letter

• One can think of the phrase multiplicity of
  meanings as expressing the concept that a symbol
  is fluid, not stable, and can suggest many
  possible meanings.
• In Hawthornes novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester
  Prynne is a Puritan woman who is pregnant out of
  wedlock and is ostracized by the Puritan
  community of Boston. She is punished and forced
  by town elders to become a living symbol and
  reminder of her sin and walking warning to all
  when she is sentenced to wear a red letter A on
  the bodice of her dresses.

10
The meaning of the A

• As the novel progresses, Hester ages and changes
  and the townspeople begin to see both her and the
  symbol A in different ways. Thus the A comes
  to have a multiplicity of meanings, each of which
  deepens and develops the meaning of the novel
• A Adulteress (Hester is guilty of the sin of
  adultery.)
• A Art (Hester is a very creative, skilled
  seamstress who makes her living through this
  art)
• A Able (Hester is able to support herself and
  daughter and to survive the towns
  condemnation.)
• A Admirable (The townspeople begin to admire
  Hester.)
• A Angel (She tends the sick and dying and is
  an angel of charity toward others.)
• A Arthur (Everyone wants to know who the
  father of the illegitimate child is, but
  Hester will not betray him. Ironically, his
  initial is displayed in Hesters punishment
  his name is Arthur.

11
Final words of warning!

• Hunt Lyman, in his web page titled Literary
  Concepts from the University of Virginia, offers
  these helpful comments
• Symbols are confusing to many students because
  natural symbolism is confused with literary
  symbolism. Definition Something that represents
  something else by association, resemblance, or
  convention, especially a material object used to
  represent something invisible.
• Symbols in a basic sense are one of the most
  natural human functions. In fact, words
  themselves are all symbols -- language is our
  most universal symbolic system. The key behind
  symbols is they contain an element of
  arbitrariness -- there is no single correlation
  emphasis added. Words, for example, are
  entirely arbitrary(Lyman).

12

• Works Cited

Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
New York Longman, 1999. Lyman, Hunt.
Symbolism. Literary Concepts. U of Virginia.
10 March 2000 lthttp//www.people.virginia.edu/hl5
s/general/concepts.htmlsymbolismgt. Symbol. A
Handbook to Literature. 6th ed. C.Hugh Holman and
William Harmon, eds. New York Macmillan, 1992.
466-67. Symbolism. Literature The Evolving
Canon. Ed. Sven Birkerts. Boston Allyn and
Bacon, 1993. 113-15.
13
CREDITS

• Developed and prepared by Dr. Linda Lovell
• NorthWest Arkansas Community College
• http//faculty.nwacc.edu/ljlovell