Why doesn’t the author just say what he means? Symbolism and YOU! Why doesn’t the author just say what he means?

What’s a Symbol, and Why Use It?

A symbol is something that stands for itself but also something larger than itself. It may be a person, an animal, an inanimate object, or an action.

A writer often uses a concrete object or action to express an abstract idea, a quality, or a belief. Spankings- Birthday spanks, spank away any evil spirits and send them scurrying far into the distance. Punches, thumps, and pinches are supposed to do the same thing. In Belgium, a family member may tiptoe into the birthday child's room early in the morning, and awake the child with a prick of a needle for good luck.

A symbol may be used as an appeal to a reader's emotions and can provide a way to express an idea, communicate a message, or clarify meaning. What emotion do you feel when you see witches or storms?

There are conventional symbols and private symbols.

A conventional symbol is one that is widely accepted and used by many writers; for example, a nightingale is a symbol for melancholy, a dove for peace, a rose for love and beauty, spring for life, and winter for death.

A private symbol is one that an individual writer creates for a particular work of literature. We are going to be studying how this bird, the scarlet ibis, is used as a symbol in a story we will be reading.

An object is a symbol only if seems to be representative of something else. All objects are not symbols. Sometimes a bird in a story is just a bird.

But why bother the reader with symbols at all. Is it just to confuse us?

The great author Flannery O’Connor explains: “I think that the way to read a book is always to see what happens, but in a good novel, more always happens than we are able to take in at once, more happens than meets the eye. The mind is led on by what it sees into the greater depths that the book’s symbols naturally suggest. This is what is meant when critics say that a novel operates on several levels. The truer the symbol, the deeper it leads you, the more meaning it opens up.”

We get to study the impact of symbolism on a story called “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. You will discover the story’s main character is not a bird, but a boy. You also discover that the more you know about the bird, the more you understand and empathize with the boy.

You will then get to write a short story of your own and “publish” it in some way using technology to do so. Start thinking about what subject you would like to write about. As we learn about symbols, think about what you might like to use as a symbol as well.