SYMBOLISM Made in JANUARY 2006 for BUILD/BLANKA in LONDON [UK]

In fiction

The symbol is a concrete thing in the story, literal, see-able, an image: a bridge, a bottle of whiskey, a pebble, a letter, fire. It moves through the story, quietly accruing meanings. And these meanings continue to adhere to the thing throughout the story. For example:

And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out Daisy's light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

There was always a bottle present, so that it would seem to him that those fine fierce instants of heart and brain and courage and wiliness and speed were concentrated and distilled into that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank, drinking not of the blood they spilled but some condensation of the wild immortal spirit, drinking it moderately, humbly even, not with the pagan's base and baseless hope of acquiring thereby the virtues of cunning and speed but in salute to them. Thus it seemed to him on the December morning not only natural but actually fitting that this should have begun with whiskey

recurs is spotlighted through description Appears in prominent places title, opening, ending, climax is dynamic, hard to pin down/define/limit may remain after the story has faded suggests the theme. may reveal more than the writer intended

Personal Contextual Cultural/conventional Universal

Our experiences give meaning to things & actions

An old sled mean winter fun to a child whos moved to Florida The smell of cloves means Gramma, because she always has clove gum in her purse Geese leaving means change to some Geese leaving, to someone else, means togetherness A man loses his wedding ring then finds it. He doesnt tell his wife because its a symbol of their marriage, and so to lose it means Always touching the lawn gnome before a trip means Well be back.

The characters experiences and the way the story is told give meaning to things and actions In A&P, when Sammy takes off his apron, hes symbolically saying I will not conform. The hair on the pillow at the end of A Rose for Miss Emily is iron-greya symbol of her strength and/or hardness Miss Brills hat at the end may symbolize her The quilt in Everyday Use symbolizes muchthe past, hard work, family.

The culture gives pre-set meanings to things and actions, readable by all within that culture
A key = freedom, escape, but less so or not at all in a culture with mass transportation. Black = death, funerals in some cultures, white in others A peace sign, a dove = peace The flag = patriotism Red line through something = not

Some Things and actions have the same symbolic meaning around the world because we share biology and . . . a world. But be cautious
Morning = new beginnings Green = spring, rebirth Candle = a light in darkness Lions = power Chain = bondage Caution. What IS universal? Darkness = danger, or safety? Red = blood/death or (in China) joy/marriage? Snakes = evil, or is that limited to Eurocentric cultures?

Read the symbolism of your life. Things you lose often, need a lot of. Actions you repeat. Recurring night and day dreams. The songs and photos you love. The things you associate with friends and family. What would it be hard for you to give away? If your best friend was leaving forever, what would you give him/her to take?

Write about something you lose often or would hate to lose. Freewrite a dream sequence drawing on as many conventional symbols as possible. Include one personal symbol. Trade with another and interpret.

Perhaps by burning the barns of his landlords, the unpleasant father in Barn Burning is trying to destroy the symbols of their wealth. In rural 19th century America, a solid barn was a sign of wealth. By giving the quilt to Maggie, her mother is symbolically saying You, Maggie, are the one who will carry on the traditions. By going behind the wallpaper, the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper is trying to escape the confinement of her life.

Here is a scene from the story The Things They Carried. On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. [He feels responsible for Lavenders death because he was daydreaming about Martha when the attack came]. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body, holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tips of his fingers. He realized it was only a gesture. Lavender was dead. You couldn't burn the blame. [But he tries, with this symbolic action; it does help him go on.]