Symbolism

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

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).

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.

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

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.

Symbols are created by

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

The Sick Rose

William Blake

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.

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 dont 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

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

Mother to Son Langston Hughe

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,

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',


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Mother to Son Langston Hughe

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

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


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The Road Not Taken Robert Fros

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

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


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A Loaf of Poetry
by Naoshi Koriyama

Identity --- Julio Noboa Polanco

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

beyond the mountains of

time
or into the abyss of the
bizarre
Id rather be unseen, and if
then shunned by everyone,
than to be a pleasantsmelling 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


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Identity --- Julio Noboa Polanco