1. Symbol

2. Symbols

3. What are symbols?  Conventional symbols  Abstract symbols  Literary symbols  Embodying universal suggestions of meaning;  Securing its suggestiveness not from qualities inherent in itself but from the way in which it is used in a given work, in a special context;  Often inanimate objects or symbolic act.

4. Images? Symbols ？  The truth is, I do indeed include images in my work, but I don’t think of them as symbols.[…] To me, symbols are stand-in’s for abstract ideas. They belong to the High School of Hidden Meanings: vases symbolize female orifices, broken vases symbolize a loss of virginity and innocence. Heavy stuff. I prefer using images. My writing tends toward the Elementary School of Word Pictures: the accidental shattering of a vase in an empty room changes the emotions of a scene from sanity to uneasiness, perhaps even to dread. The point is, if there are symbols in my work they exist largely by accident or through someone else’s interpretive design. –Amy Tan, The Threepenny Review

5. Related concepts: Image, Metaphor, and Allegory  An image is a literal and concrete representation of a sensory experience or of an object that can be known by one or more of the senses.(p.232)  A metaphor is an implied analogy imaginatively identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one or more of the qualities of the second, or investing the first with emotional or imaginative qualities associated with the second.(p.233)  An allegory is a story in which persons, places, actions, and things are equated with meanings that lie outside of the story itself. (p.234)

6. Symbols and Metaphors  Symbols and metaphors share several qualities, but they are far from being synonymous. Both are figurative expressions that transcend literal language. Both rely heavily on implication and suggestion. Both present the abstract in concrete terms, and both can be interpreted with varying degrees of openness or specificity. They differ, however, in important ways. A symbol expands language by substitution, a metaphor by comparison and interaction. A symbol does not ask a reader to merge two concepts but rather to let one thing suggest another. A symbol derives its meaning through development and consensus, a metaphor through invention and originality. A symbol is strengthened by repetition, but a metaphor is destroyed by it. –Roland Bartel, Metaphors and Symbols

7. Symbols in Young Goodman Brown  Faith  Goodman  Pink ribbon  Forest  Darkness  Indians  Serpent-like rod,…

8. Checklist 1  Are any universal symbols used in the work? Any conventional symbols? What is their function?  Is any character, place, action, event, or object given unusual prominence or emphasis in the story? If so, does this element seem to have symbolic as well as literal value?  What possible meanings does each symbol suggest?  How do symbols help to characterize the story’s setting?

9.  How do symbols help to advance the story’s plot?  Are any of the symbols related? Taken together, do they seem to support a common theme?  Does the story have a moral or didactic purpose? What is the message, idea, or moral principle the story seeks to convey?  What equivalent may be assigned to each allegorical figure in the story?  What is the allegorical framework of the story?  Does the story combine allegorical figures and symbols? How do they work together in the story? Checklist 2

10. Assignment  Please read the story “The Lottery” and think about the questions behind it.