Shalla ON: Symbol and Allegory in Fiction
Shalla ON: Symbol and Allegory in Fiction
What is a symbol?
In literature, symbol is a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning. It does not stand for one meaning or anything definite. Instead, a symbol is a clue that can help figure out the story’s theme.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, large bespectacled eyes stares across a wilderness from a billboard advertisement. It appears in the story several times. A character notices it as like the eyes of God that watches life unfolding.
In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the great white whale means more its dictionary definition of a mammal that lives in the sea. As the story unfolds, Moby-Dick shows to imply the forces of nature and the whole created universe.
Unlike allegory, persons, places and things that clearly stand for definite things, a symbol can have indefinite, multiple meanings. For instance, in a simple allegory like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, the character, Faith, stands for and reflects exactly for that.
Then there are supreme allegories that are found in biblical parables.
Ie. “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…,” (Matthew 13:24-30)
As for classic allegory, this can be found in Everyman, where the hero represents all of us. And there’s George Orwell’s Animal Farm where barnyard animals stand for totalitarian oppressors and human victims.
In fiction, symbols are usually not abstract (like love or beauty) but perceptible objects (or descriptions that help us imagine objects). As in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily’s invisible watch indicates the passage of time and also represents the idea that time passes and people like its owner doesn’t notice.
Furthermore, the golden chain that hangs on the watch implies the owner’s wealth and station. Besides perceptible objects, symbols can be words, names, a body part or attribute.
In James Joyce’s Araby, the name of the bazaar, Araby, is the poetic name for Arabia which implies magic, romance and The Arabian Nights. Then consider the baleful eye in Edgar Allan Poe’s A Tell Tale Heart.
Locales can also be symbols. The café in Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean Well Lighted Place is not just a café but a comforting refuge from aging, fear of loneliness and anticipated death.
How about symbolic characters? These characters are usually flat and only functions to clue us in and add mystery to the puzzle. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkeness, a steamship has two women knitting black wool in the waiting room. Why? They imply the classical Fates.
Faulkner’s Miss Emily, personifies the vanishing aristocrasy in the anteballum South. In a way, all characters are symbolic, helpful in figuring out the story.
How about a symbolic act? It is a gesture with bigger, more significance than usual. In The Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Dawson stands on the front of the ship, arms thrown back, air racing through his hair as he says, “I’m the king of the world!” This suggests his great hopes for a fantastic voyage and that however it unfolds, he trusts it all to destiny.
Okay, so why do it? Why use symbols? Why not just be direct and say things outright?
Symbols can hold so much meaning yet it is so compact. Concrete and mysterious Ie. Miss Emily’s invisible ticking watch, renders us in a dream or a nightmare. Here, the symbol expresses more memorably and more fully what long paragraphs on the subject cannot.
What’s the best way to recognize a symbol?
Watch for words, locales, objects, etc. that the storyteller empasizes and repeats.
It can be the title.
It can open or end the story.
Look out for words, object, action, character, etc. that leads to the theme.
What is a symbol?
In literature, symbol is a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning. It does not stand for one meaning or anything definite. Instead, a symbol is a clue that can help figure out the story’s theme.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, large bespectacled eyes stares across a wilderness from a billboard advertisement. It appears in the story several times. A character notices it as like the eyes of God that watches life unfolding.
In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the great white whale means more its dictionary definition of a mammal that lives in the sea. As the story unfolds, Moby-Dick shows to imply the forces of nature and the whole created universe.
Unlike allegory, persons, places and things that clearly stand for definite things, a symbol can have indefinite, multiple meanings. For instance, in a simple allegory like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, the character, Faith, stands for and reflects exactly for that.
Then there are supreme allegories that are found in biblical parables.
Ie. “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…,” (Matthew 13:24-30)
As for classic allegory, this can be found in Everyman, where the hero represents all of us. And there’s George Orwell’s Animal Farm where barnyard animals stand for totalitarian oppressors and human victims.
In fiction, symbols are usually not abstract (like love or beauty) but perceptible objects (or descriptions that help us imagine objects). As in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily’s invisible watch indicates the passage of time and also represents the idea that time passes and people like its owner doesn’t notice.
Furthermore, the golden chain that hangs on the watch implies the owner’s wealth and station. Besides perceptible objects, symbols can be words, names, a body part or attribute.
In James Joyce’s Araby, the name of the bazaar, Araby, is the poetic name for Arabia which implies magic, romance and The Arabian Nights. Then consider the baleful eye in Edgar Allan Poe’s A Tell Tale Heart.
Locales can also be symbols. The café in Ernest Hemingway’s A Clean Well Lighted Place is not just a café but a comforting refuge from aging, fear of loneliness and anticipated death.
How about symbolic characters? These characters are usually flat and only functions to clue us in and add mystery to the puzzle. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkeness, a steamship has two women knitting black wool in the waiting room. Why? They imply the classical Fates.
Faulkner’s Miss Emily, personifies the vanishing aristocrasy in the anteballum South. In a way, all characters are symbolic, helpful in figuring out the story.
How about a symbolic act? It is a gesture with bigger, more significance than usual. In The Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Dawson stands on the front of the ship, arms thrown back, air racing through his hair as he says, “I’m the king of the world!” This suggests his great hopes for a fantastic voyage and that however it unfolds, he trusts it all to destiny.
Okay, so why do it? Why use symbols? Why not just be direct and say things outright?
Symbols can hold so much meaning yet it is so compact. Concrete and mysterious Ie. Miss Emily’s invisible ticking watch, renders us in a dream or a nightmare. Here, the symbol expresses more memorably and more fully what long paragraphs on the subject cannot.
What’s the best way to recognize a symbol?
Watch for words, locales, objects, etc. that the storyteller empasizes and repeats.
It can be the title.
It can open or end the story.
Look out for words, object, action, character, etc. that leads to the theme.
posted by Shalla at 8:49 AM
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