1. Boot Camp A.P. Literature
Part 4: Symbolism, Irony, and Satire

2. Symbolism
Definition: Literary devices developed from the connections that real-life people make between their own existence and particular objects, places, or occurrences through either experience or reading. (Roberts & Jacobs 393)
Symbols = specific details (creates a meaningful connection between an object, scene, character, or action and ideas, values, persons, or ways of life)
Allegories = stories or parts of stories that have a second meaning beneath the surface that gives added significance
Biblical
Greek
Heroic cycle

3. Purpose and Types Purpose = compression that expands meaning
Types of Symbols
Cultural = universally recognized (The sun)
Contextual = only applies in individual works (the white whale in Moby Dick)

4. How do I know it’s a symbol?
How much importance does the author give it?
emphasis
repetition
position
Meaning must be established and supported by the entire context of the story. Symbol has its meaning in the story, not outside it.
Item must suggest a meaning different in kind from its literal meaning.
It may have multiple meanings.
Example: The scarlet letter ‘A’

5. Mr. Sato’s Symbolism Video

6. Where have we seen symbols?
“Greasy Lake”
“A Rose for Miss Emily”
“Cathedral”
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
“To Build a Fire”
Other common novels or stories?
Let’s discuss “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”

7. Irony & Satire Irony Purposes of Irony (Effects)
Definition: A contradiction or incongruity between appearance or expectation and reality.
Purposes of Irony (Effects)
To convey a truth about human experience
Allows the author to achieve compression. (Suggest complex meanings without stating them.)
Achieves its effects through misdirection.

8. Methods of Irony
Verbal Irony = a figure of speech in which the speaker says the opposite of what he or she intends to say. (Simplest form)
Sarcasm = designed to hurt, ridicule
Dramatic Irony = the contrast is between what a character says or thinks and what the reader knows to be true. (Conveys truth about the character or character’s expectations.)
Situational = the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.

9. Satire
Definition: A literary genre that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to expose humanity’s vices and foibles, giving impetus to change or reform through ridicule.
Jonathon Swift
Oscar Wilde
Swift and Wilde were two famous satirists who took aim at British society. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” pointed out the heartlessness England’s social policies in Ireland, while Wilde wrote about the emptiness of high society in works such as “The Importance of Being Earnest”.
Don’t the miss effects

10. Mr. Sato on Satire

11. Where have we seen satire?
“Where are You Going, Where Have you Been?”
“A Rose for Miss Emily”
Other common novels?

12. Where have we seen satire?
TV?
Movies?

13. Effect of Irony Analysis
On your own sheet of paper:
Make a t-graph (minimum of 5 entries)
Left side: Ironic Quotes
Right side: Explanation—how ironic?
Your choice—either story (and/or both!)
Write a thesis on the effect of irony in the story.
Use the symbolism analysis structure.