Symbolism

1. Symbolism Sherwood Brooks Driftwood Middle School

2. Lesson Objectives The students will: • understand symbolism • recognize how symbolism is used • explain how symbolism is used in their daily lives • understand how different writers use symbolism in various aspects of prose

3. A symbol is… is something that represents something else, either by association or by resemblance. It can be a material (concrete) object or a written sign used to represent something invisible (abstract).

4. How do writers use symbolism? • Symbolism is used when a writer uses an event, item or a character to stand for something else. • Symbols can be characters, such as a character symbolizing good or evil. People can be symbols, such as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. • Objects can also be symbols, such as in the scarlet letter. • Authors use symbolism, as a form of imagery or metaphor, when they want to portray something to the reader without using the narrator. • When an item is mentioned rather regularly throughout a novel, especially a personal item belonging to one of the principal characters, the reader must ask what it might symbolize.

5. Symbolism • Symbols are used in daily life – road signs, maps, household items etc. • Symbolism is often used to intensify a feeling or idea • Symbolism can take place by having the theme of a story represented on a physical level. For example, the occurrence of a storm at a critical point, when there is conflict or high emotions. The storm might come to symbolize these emotions. • Another example might be the way sound is used to replace a character or an event

6. Let's look at some actual examples of symbolism used in literature and other media, with which you might be familiar. • The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling could be seen as containing a lot of symbolism. One clear example is the use of a snake to represent evil. It is no coincidence that the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent.

7. Symbols are created by conscious and deliberate use of language by writers, advertisers and speakers. What do these symbols represent?

8. O Rose, thou art sick. The invisible worm That flies in the night In the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. The Sick RoseWilliam Blake

9. Symbolism At first this poem appears to be about a rose and a worm, but even a non-gardener knows that worms are not invisible and they don’t fly. Once the worm is seen as an abstraction, the rose is too, and it can be interpreted according to conventional associations such as love, faith, hope, tender emotions, youthful optimism; the list can extend as far as the reader's imagination and ingenuity can take it. • An owl symbolizes wisdom • The phoenix symbolizes rebirth • The dove symbolizes peace • Fire represents anger or safety

10. Symbols work like images that have meaning added to them. A rose is just a flower, until it is one of a bunch given as a present. Then it signifies love, passionate if the rose is red, purity if it is white. • When it appears in a poem by William Blake, however, it becomes more complex

11. Mother to Son – Langston Hughes And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So, boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps. 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now— For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair. Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners,

12. Mother to Son – Langston Hughes • What is the setting? What does it symbolize? • Who is the main character? • Is the main character symbolic? • Name some objects in the poem that are • symbolic. • What does each object symbolize? • Is there evidence of symbolism in the author’s • use of words/language? • If so, tell the literal and abstract meaning of each.

13. The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost • Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, • And sorry I could not travel both • And be one traveler, long I stood • And looked down one as far as I could • To where it bent in the undergrowth; • Then took the other, as just as fair, • And having perhaps the better claim • Because it was grassy and wanted wear, • Though as for that the passing there • Had worn them really about the same, • And both that morning equally lay • In leaves no step had trodden black. • Oh, I marked 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 sigh • Somewhere ages and ages hence: • Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, • I took the one less traveled by, • And that has made all the difference.

14. The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost • What is the setting? What does it symbolize? • Who is the speaker? • Is the speaker symbolic? • Name some objects in the poem that are • symbolic. • What does each object symbolize? • Is there evidence of symbolism in the author’s • use of words/language? • If so, tell the literal and abstract meaning of each.

15. A Loaf of Poetry by Naoshi Koriyama you mix the dough of experience with the yeast of inspiration and knead it well with love and pound it with all your might and then leave it until it puffs out big with its own inner force and then knead it again and shape it into a round form and bake it in the oven of your heart

16. A Loaf of Poetry by Naoshi Koriyama • Who is the speaker? Is the speaker real? • What is the main idea of the poem? • What is the theme of the poem? • Name some objects in the poem that are • symbolic. • What does each object symbolize? • Is there evidence of symbolism in the author’s • use of words/language? • If so, tell the literal and abstract meaning of each.

17. Identity --- Julio Noboa Polanco beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of the bizarre I’d rather be unseen, and if then shunned by everyone, than to be a pleasant-smelling flower, growing in clusters in the fertile valleys, where they're praised, handled, and plucked by greedy, human hands. I'd rather smell of musty, green stench than of sweet, fragrant lilac. If I could stand alone, strong and free, I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed. Let them be as flowers, always watered, fed, guarded, admired, but harnessed to a pot of dirt. I'd rather be a tall, ugly weed, clinging on cliffs, like an eagle wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks. To have broken through the surface of stone, to live, to feel exposed to the madness of the vast, eternal sky. To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea, carrying my soul, my seed,

18. Identity --- Julio Noboa Polanco • What is the setting? What does it symbolize? • What is the theme? • Is the main character symbolic? • Name some objects in the poem that are • symbolic. • What does each object symbolize? • Is there evidence of symbolism in the author’s • use of words/language? • If so, tell the literal and abstract meaning of each.