1. SYMBOLISM

2. Where Do We Get Symbols?
What does each of these symbols stand for? Why do you think they have taken on the meanings they have?
justice
love
luck 2

3. Symbols in Literature Writers use symbols to
suggest layers of meaning that a simple, literal statement could never convey
speak more powerfully to the reader’s emotions and imagination
make their stories rich and memorable 3

4. What Is a Symbol?
A symbol is an ordinary object, event, person, or animal to which we have attached a special meaning. 4

5. What Is Symbolism in Literature?
Symbolism is when the author uses an object or reference to add deeper meaning to a story. Symbolism in literature can be subtle or obvious, used sparingly or heavy-handedly. An author may repeatedly use the same object to convey deeper meaning or may use variations of the same object to create an overarching mood or feeling. Symbolism is often used to support a literary theme in a subtle manner.

6. What Are Some Examples of Symbolism?
The following are common symbols used in literary works:
Symbols referring to damnation: Fire, flames, heat, hot temperatures
Symbols referring to salvation: Crosses, angels, haloes, clouds, churches
Symbols referring to reincarnation or reinvention: Phoenix rising from flames, crosses, rainbows, passing storms, dawn, sunrise, broken chains, spring
Symbols referring to death or endings: Gravestones, cemeteries, Grim Reaper, Day of the Dead, skulls, candle blowing out, coffin, ringing of bell

7. How Do Writers Use Symbolism?
Writers insert symbols into their writing to allude to a feeling, mood or attitude without directly stating the perspective or mood intended. Symbolism is supplemental to the story.
Try using symbolism to supplement your work as you write short stories or poetry. Weave the symbols into the stories so that the symbols support the story line and mood, rather than sticking out like an obvious literary device.

10. Write down what the following items could symbolize in general:
Glasses
Hair
Clothing

17. But before Lord of the Flies…
Let’s take a look back at Farewell to Manzanar to try and find several examples of symbolism.

18. Write down as many meanings you can associate with this object as possible.

19. Kimi ga yo wa chiyoni yachiyoni sa-za-ra i-shi no i-wa-o to na-ri-te ko-ke no musu made.

20. May thy peaceful reign last long
May thy peaceful reign last long. May it last for thousands of years, Until this tiny stone will grow Into a massive rock, and the moss Will cover it deep and thick.

21. Then why would there be so many stone gardens around Manzanar?

22. “I had found out that even in North Dakota, when Papa and the other Issei men imprisoned there had free time, they would gather small stones from the plain and spend hours sorting through a dry stream bed looking for the veined or polished rock that somehow pleased the most. It is so characteristically Japanese, the way lives were made more tolerable by gathering loose desert stones and forming them with something enduringly human. These rock gardens had outlived the barracks and the towers and would surely outlive the asphalt road and rusted pipes and shattered slabs of concrete. Each stone was a mouth, speaking for a family, for some man who had beautified his doorstep.” (191)

23. What do these images symbolize?

24. Now make the connection!
What is Wakatsuki really mean when she says that the “…rock gardens had outlived the barracks and the towers and would surely outlive the asphalt road and rusted pipes and shattered slabs of concrete”?

25. Let’s look at another symbol

26. “To this day I have a recurring dream, which fills me each time with a terrible sense of loss and desolation. I see a young, beautiful blond and blue-eyed high school girl moving through a room full of others her own age, much admired by everyone, men and women both, myself included, as I watch through a window. I feel no malice toward this girl. I don’t even envy her. Watching, I am simply emptied, and in the dream I want to cry out, because she is something I can never be, some possibility in my life that can never be fulfilled.” (171-72)

27. What do dreams symbolize?

28. Now make the connection!
What does the window in Jeanne’s dream specifically symbolize?