Symbolism

1. Symbolism Feature Menu What Is a Symbol? Where Do We Get Symbols? Symbols in Literature Practice Part A Practice Part B

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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 [End of Section]

6. 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

7. Symbols in Literature Quick Check What might the cake symbolize in this passage? 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 is your emotional response to the description of the cake? [End of Section]

8. Symbols in Literature Quick Check What might the cake symbolize in this passage? 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 lost love, disappointment, holding on to the past

9. Symbols in Literature Quick Check What is your emotional response to the description of the cake? 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 It gives me the creeps. It makes me feel sorry for the woman.

10. Where Do We Get Symbols? Note Different cultures may attach different meanings to some symbols. • For example, the symbolic meanings of colors are not universal.