Essay Sample on Symbolism in Literature

Symbolism is a form of literature that is used to signify qualities or ideas and hence give them a symbolic meaning which is unlike how they mean. Symbolism can take several ways that are different. Mostly, this is used when an object is used to represent another, to give it a different meaning that is more significant and much deeper. In other times, however, words were spoken by someone, an event or action may have symbolic importance. Symbolism also ties things that seem to be impractical in the general themes and make them have a meaning in literature.

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Symbols mostly present itself as a figure of speech, a character, a word, or an event when used in literature. There are different ways that symbolism is used in a piece of writing, giving a collection of a diverse meaning. A particular symbol can take the form of a color like red, which may represent danger or passion. Types of weather conditions may also be used to symbolize some events like fog, might be used to describe the failure to see openly. Other forms of symbolism that are common uses are the human body, objects, and animals.

There are several types of symbolism in the literature work that are used in different ways to represent different ideas used. Moreover, these symbols gives the piece of work a detailed meaning from the original purpose. Some of the most commonly used symbols in the literature include; metaphors, this is a symbol that is used to compare one thing to another without the use of an equation or a sign (Lacey, Simon, Randall Stilla & Krish, p 416). An example of a metaphor is 'a pen is mightier than a sword.' This eventually has a different meaning from the actual meaning. Secondly, is the similes that differ from the metaphor as in the comparison of the analogy a connector is used to implicate the similarity? Similes directly compare two ideas into one look and make them have a collective meaning. An example of a metaphor is 'as strong as an ox' of which an ox is not the healthiest thing overall thing, but it is just compared to one of the strongest.

Symbols can signify things that do happen in the physical world and might mean other ideas. An example can be a lightning bar that might strike a tree as murder is happening; the lightning hitting the tree could represent the killing taking place. Likewise, an old dying oak can symbolize an early age where a flower can be a symbol of a young age. This symbols of the physical world are eventually used in literature, work to give it a sweet look and to make the readers take time before they understand what is being communicated in a piece of work. Hence this makes the readers concentrate on the story as they want to get everything in it.

The authors like to use the symbols in their work to accomplish some things, some of them include. Adding emotion mass in their written work, whenever some emotional symbols are used to represent ideas in a text, they make the reader feel whatever they are reading. Symbols also foster independent thinking to the readers as they try to interpolate whatever is written in a text (Fadaee, p 20). As people go through a book, they get different symbols that are used to implicate ideas. Every person who reads a piece of work interpolates it differently from the other. Hence the symbols used gives everyone to understand the part of work differently from the other person. Finally, symbols, when used in a text, can have a whole meaning. This gives the writers a chance to have a relation of big ideas artfully and efficiently.

Works Cited

Fadaee, Elaheh. "Symbols, metaphors and similes in literature: A case study of "Animal Farm"." Journal of English and Literature 2.2 (2011): 19-27.

Lacey, Simon, Randall Stilla, and Krish Sathian. "Metaphorically feeling: comprehending textural metaphors activates somatosensory cortex." Brain and language 120.3 (2012): 416-421.