Symbols

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Symbols
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A symbol is a person, place, or object that
stands for something beyond itself.
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Look for references to concrete objects.
Symbol Meaning??????? Evidence

• Procedure Make a two-column chart. In the left
  column, write down the concrete object. In the
  right column, write what it may symbolize.

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Pay special attention to objects or places
accompanied by a lengthy description, repetition,
or special placement.

• Procedure Analyze the title. List objects
  mentioned more than once. List objects that
  appear at crucial moments.

• Examples and Observations
• Batman as a SymbolBruce Wayne People need
  dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy,
  and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man I'm
  flesh and blood. I can be ignored, I can be
  destroyed, but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be
  incorruptible, I can be everlasting.Alfred
  Pennyworth What symbol?Bruce Wayne Something
  elemental, something terrifying.Alfred
  Pennyworth I assume that as you're taking on the
  underworld, this symbol is a persona to protect
  those you care about from reprisals.Bruce Wayne
  You thinking about Rachel?Alfred Pennyworth
  Actually, sir, I was thinking of
  myself.(Christian Bale and Michael Caine in
  Batman Begins, 2005)

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Symbols in Poetry

• Literary Symbols Robert Frost's "The Road Not
  Taken"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And
  sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one
  traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far
  as I couldTo where it bent in the
  undergrowthThen took the other, as just as
  fair,And having perhaps the better
  claim,Because it was grassy and wanted
  wearThough as for that the passing thereHad
  worn them really about the same,And both that
  morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden
  black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet
  knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I
  should ever come back.I shall be telling this
  with a sighSomewhere ages and ages henceTwo
  roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one
  less traveled by,And that has made all the
  difference.(Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken."
  Mountain Interval, 1920)

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Colours as Symbols
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Colours

• Black- Night/evil/mystery
• Blue- life/water/purity
• Brown- earth/Earth/warm/comfortable
• Gold- Royalty/wealth
• Green- nature/eternal life
• Orange- energy

• Pink- child like innocence
• Purple- royalty/knowledge
• Red- blood/love/infatuation/anger
• Yellow- joy/happiness