A symbol is “a thing that suggests more than its literal meaning” (Kennedy & Gioia 217).

Symbols Suggest  Symbols tend toward multiple meanings or possibilities.  Symbols suggest rather than “stand for” (Kennedy and Gioia 217).  Symbols are expansive, opening up meaning and giving a work depth, while allegories are “reductive,” forcing an element to represent one idea alone (Birkerts 115).

Symbols Suggest  Kennedy and Gioia explain that “Symbols generally do not ‘stand for’ any one meaning, nor for anything absolutely definite; they point, they hint, or, as Henry James put it, they cast long shadows” (217).

Examples of symbols  Batman can be seen as a symbol of justice. In his stories often times bats represent him. In these same stories bats therefore represent justice.

Examples of symbols  In a horror story, a bat may represent something different; such as a vampire or something evil.  This is an example of how a symbol can change based on the content of the story.

Two Kinds of Symbols Conventional or traditional symbols: These symbols have meanings that large numbers of people understand. They embody universal suggestions of meaning, such as that a voyage suggests life or flowing water suggests time and eternity (“Symbol” 467). Can you guess what the visual symbols below stand for?

Two Kinds of Symbols

Depending on one’s own cultural background, she might answer that this is the letter t. Or he might say that it is the mast of a ship. If one has been raised in a Judeo-Christian culture, however, it’s highly likely that that person might see a cross here, representative of the Crucifixion of Jesus and of salvation.

a flag for country (“the flag”) Go Hogs! Red Razorback for the University of Arkansas More conventional symbols which may be expressed as words or pictures:

an X at the end of a letter for a kiss XXX (“smack!”) “spring” as the symbol of new beginnings a slash line through a sign for NO, as in “No Parking.”

Two Kinds of Symbols (continued) Private or original symbols: These kinds of symbols may be relative, dependent upon the beholder or upon how they are used in a work. The park bench where you met the one you love is a private symbol which you interpret privately.

Two Kinds of Symbols (continued) The empty space on the wall where the picture once was could be a private symbol of personal loss for one person, while for another the lighter shade of that space simply indicates that a wall needs to be painted.

Two Kinds of Symbols (continued) In fact, a symbol may shift in meaning as the work develops. Private symbols “acquire” meaning because of the ways they are used in a literary work (“Symbol” 467). Critic Sven Birkerts writes that private symbols gain their meaning “gradually, through repetition or strategic placement” and that they have “powerful, condensed meanings” (“Symbolism” 113).

More private or original symbols WAKE UP! A gun, for example, may represent destruction, but it may also be interpreted as a symbol of sexual potency, Birkerts suggests (113). On the other hand, some objects are just and only that, themselves; that is, a gun is simply a gun in a story and is not meant to carry any larger meaning. I think maybe it was Sigmund Freud who once cried out in exasperation, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!” :-)

More private or original symbols One can interpret symbols through recognition of their use in patterns, repetition, or “strategic placement” in a work (Birkerts 113). But Sven Birkerts warns that symbols are not “planted” in a literary work “like radishes” and one does not “simply find them and pluck them free” (113). Instead, he writes, symbols function as a kind of “forcefield, sending out waves of suggestion that penetrate many layers of the work and add to its meaning” (Birkerts 113).

A look at one symbol: the flower at the end of Gathering Blue One can think of the phrase “multiplicity of meanings” as expressing the concept that a symbol is fluid, not stable, and can suggest many possible meanings. In “Gathering Blue”, Matt brings a flower back to Kira’s village. The plant is wilting and near death. Matt waters the flower and it has a rebirth. If taken care of and planted properly the plant will grow and sprout flowers. Also, Matt brings back a philosophy from the broken one’s village. A philosophy of hope and kindness. Something foreign to Kira’s village, which is wilting and near death emotionally. If this philosophy can be taken care of and nurtured, it will transform Kira’s village into one with happy people filled with hope.

Final words of warning!  Hunt Lyman, in his web page titled “Literary Concepts” from the University of Virginia, offers these helpful comments:  “Symbols are confusing to many students because natural symbolism is confused with literary symbolism. Definition: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.

Final words of warning!  Symbols in a basic sense are one of the most natural human functions. In fact, words themselves are all symbols -- language is our most universal symbolic system. The key behind symbols is they contain an element of arbitrariness -- there is no single correlation [emphasis added]. Words, for example, are entirely arbitrary”(Lyman).