Symbolism and Allegory
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Transcript of Symbolism and Allegory
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What Is a Symbol?Where Do We Get Symbols?Symbols in LiteratureAllegoryPractice Part APractice Part B
Symbolism and Allegory
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A symbol is an ordinary object, event, person, or animal to which we have attached a special meaning.
What Is a Symbol?
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Public symbols• have been inherited, or
handed down over time
• show up in art and literature
Where Do We Get Symbols?
• are widely known
Note
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What does each of these symbols stand for? Why do you think they have taken on the meanings they have?
justice luck love
Where Do We Get Symbols?
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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
Where Do We Get Symbols?
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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
Symbols in Literature
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What might the cake symbolize in this passage?
What is your emotional response to the description of the cake?
Symbols in LiteratureQuick 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 [End of Section]
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Allegory—a story in which characters, setting, and actions stand for something beyond themselves, such as• abstract ideas• moral qualities• historical figures or
events
Allegory
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Allegories• can be read on two levels: literal and symbolic• are often intended to
teach a moral lesson or make a comment about goodness and vice
Allegory
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Characters and places in allegories often have names that reveal their symbolic significance:
Characters PlacesDeathVanityGood DeedsIgnorance
Celestial CityVanity FairHill of DifficultyValley of Fear
Allegory
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What do you think Everyman, the main character of the allegory, stands for?
What comment about fellowship, beauty, and strength does this allegory make?
AllegoryQuick Check
One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end.
—summary of “Everyman”
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On a symbolic level, what does it mean that only Good Deeds stays with Everyman to the end?
AllegoryQuick Check
One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end.
—summary of “Everyman”
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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 eagle• Spring
• An owl• A white flag
Practice
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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?
Practice
I May, I Might, I MustIf you will tell me why the fenappears impassable, I thenwill tell you why I think that Ican get across it if I try.
—Marianne Moore[End of Section]
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