Symbolism in Literature by James Aguilar (ebook pc reader TXT) 📕

A father tells his son to play outside without his presence. The son replies to his father and says, “No, you need to be with me in order to feel safe.” Automatically the father becomes a symbol of security, vigilance, and safekeeping. The term symbolism means the systematic use of symbols or pictorial conventions to express an allegorical meaning. Symbolism is an important element of most religious arts and literature, and symbols play a main role in psychoanalysis. Thus, writers use these symbols from mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul. Symbolists believed that literature should apprehend more absolute truths, which could only be accessed indirectly. Thus, they write inspired from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena in a highly metaphorical and suggestive manner. They provide particular images or objects with esoteric attractions. The word “symbol” comes from the Greek verb symballein, “to put together,” and the noun symbolon, “sign.” Late in the seventeenth century, its use served often as a designation for a mathematical sign. Its application to literature with a clearly defined meaning, contrasting it with allegory, occurred first in Germany late in the eighteenth century. Stafford, Erdrich, Plath, Chopin, and Sandburg’s pieces “Traveling Through the Dark,” “Bidwell Ghost,” “Mirror,” and “The Story of an Hour,” instruct lessons using symbolism. All of these poems are written in different styles and use symbols in many forms.

People see the most bizarre occurrences at night. Some experience missing a turn when driving to their destination. A soul’s vehicle malfunctions and is immovable in the middle of no where. We continue to know about more and more new incidences. William Stafford’s writings are an example of symbolism in literature. William Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. During the Second World War, Stafford was a conscientious objector and worked in the civilian public service camps. He married Dorothy Hope Frantz. The poem “Traveling Through the Dark” uses symbols. The unborn fawn symbolizes lack of opportunities. Stafford says, “Her side was warm: her fawn lay there waiting” (line 10). The warmth is an open opportunity for survival. The prospect may be excellent because if the side is warm, the fawn is still alive. Stanford expresses, “Alive, still, never to be born” (line 11). The idea to never be born becomes heartrending and negative. It is never the fawn’s fault that it is trapped. If it is up to the fawn, it will choose to live and survive. In this case it is a tragic that the fawn doesn’t have the chance to meet air and light. The man decides that the fawn will not survive if he takes it to the nearest animal hospital. He makes a prudent decision and turns the body down the valley with the fawn still inside. What would an ordinary person do if the decision lat in his hands? Dietrich Bonheoffer quotes about decisions, “It is the characteristic excellence of the man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them”. The man in the poem took his knowledge and used it to make such depressing choice. The ordinary person will do the same. After all, the fawn is a thousand miles from a recovery location. William Stafford teaches us how the minds of the past thought about symbolism. Another example is the poem “Bidwell Ghost.”

Our minds agree to travel to the northern border of our country, the land where more than ten thousand lakes exist. Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota. Louise Rrdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota where her parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Erdrich is a novelist and poet. Her poem “Bidwell Ghost” has great symbolic usage. The fire symbolizes torment. Erdrich says, “Each night she waits by the road/ in a thin white dress/ Embroidered with fire” (Erdrich lines 1-3). Fire in most cases means something unpleasant. The fire can mean eternity. This ghost has fire all over and it does not go away. It seems that this young girl suffers still in her death. She wants to give a message to the people of her injustices. Erdrich expresses, “Nor should you try to comb the blackened nest of hair/ Or press the agates of tears/ Back into her eyes (Erdrich lines 13-15). The little girl cries so much that it might make a person want to return her tears back into her. Erdrich warns the reader to never try to do it because, no matter what happens, the little girl will still cry for the rest of her memories. A memory can be eternal until something is changed. Oscar Wilde quotes about death, “One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything, except a good reputation”. Wilde states the truth in his quote. No one is immortal, and no soul can escape the claws of death. Some diseases can be cured and controlled. The worst illness that human beings encounter is aging. The increase in age will lead to death. When a person falls into eternal sleep in an early age it is different. That is what has happened to this girl. Her life is cut by time and unforeseen occurrences. For some people death means resting in peace. In the poem “Mirror,” symbolism blows peoples minds.

Some say that a mirror can take us back in time. Other individuals say that a mirror foresees the future. The typical mirror is a sheet of glass that is coated on its back with aluminum or silver that produces images by reflection. The mirrors used in Greco-Roman antiquity and throughout the European Middle Ages were simply slightly convex disks of metal, bronze, tin, or silver, that reflected light off their highly polished surfaces. The poem “Mirror” may be a short passage but shows us significant symbol usage. The mirror symbolizes time. When a mirror is made, it can last forever. Unless the mirror cracks or shatters, it becomes history. Plath says, “The eye of a little god, four cornered” (Plath line 5). Path describes the mirror as a god because goddesses supposedly never die. The image that is reflected by this special object reveals truth. The mirror never lies, so anyone can trust its reflection. The Spanish, when they conquered the Aztecs, used a mirror to convince the natives that the image was a god. The native’s ignorance led them to their own defeat and removal of their possessions. The old woman symbolizes experience. Someone that is advanced in age can claim to be an experienced person. There is a saying that is told by many that says when a student is ready, the teacher will appear. Why is this saying true? Evidence shows that a teacher has been breathing longer than their student. So a student can never know more than his teacher. How can we relate this saying to an old woman? An old woman has reached a limit in life that it would be impossible for a younger person to reach her. Plath expresses, “In me she drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman/ Rises toward her day after day” (Plath lines 17 and 18). As every day goes by, the woman becomes older. Therefore, her experience becomes greater. Not every aged individual can say that they are wise. Some use their life to the maximum. Then there are others that throw away their lives into disappointment. At the end, experience is determined by choice. Peter Nivio Zarlenga quotes about mirrors, “Life, like a mirror, never gives back more than we put into it”. The people that decided to fail never put the effort to succeed. The individuals that are now holding an excellent carrier can say that they worked for it. In the past and now, human beings try so hard to inscribe their name in a book of records. Leaving out the importance of holding and carrying a well known name will reach further than writing it down. The following poem “Story of in Hour,” teaches us the symbolic forms of flight of the imagination.

Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. Wives deserve thoughtful consideration. The wife should not belittle what her husband does or try to take over his headship. A wife and mother who acts in this way will gain the lasting love and respect of her family. American author Kate Chopin wrote poems and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. “The Story of in Hour” shows great symbol usage. The husband’s death symbolizes freedom. Women in this time period were engaged at an early age. The future spouse might be a close friend to her father. Sometimes the fathers would wed their daughters to unify financial aid. Most of the women in this period do not complete their schooling. In short, women are owned or passed down. Chopin says, “When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: free, free, free!” (637). The married woman lives in fear and torment. When she is notified about her husband’s death, she becomes content. The woman symbolizes the violation of women’s rights in the 19th century. Women in this period were not allowed to vote, own property, or choose who to marry. In this time period most husbands would abuse of women’s rights. Many women are neglected, battered, and sexually violated. Most wives are unhappy with their marriages. Chopin expresses, “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead” (Chopin 637). In these lines she explains that her husband has showed her signs of love. Women are like fragile glassware. They are the weaker side of the man. All the men in the world that beat woman do not have anyone’s pardon. Those men are legitimate cowards. Coco Chanel quotes about women, “I don’t know why woman want any of the things men have when one of the things that woman have is men”. This quote can be alluring if the man is a gentleman. If the man is a coward, then this quote is deplorable. Sadly, in this time period most men are cowards. This is how the mind of this undesirable man is. Poets of the past teach us how minds maneuver through literature.

Poetry in the 19th and 20th century is the high of literature in America and the old continent. Stafford, Erdrich, Plath, Chopin, and Sandburg’s poems “Traveling Through the Dark,” “Bidwell Ghost,” “Mirror,” and “The Story of an Hour,” instruct lessons using symbolism. All of these poems are written in different styles and use symbols in many forms. In the poem “Traveling Through the Dark” the warmth is an open opportunity for survival. Warmth in modern days symbolizes comfort. Many poets use the symbolic term warmth referring to love. In the poem “Bidwell Ghost” the fire symbolizes torment. In the 21st century, fire means mostly something burning. Fire may also symbolize rage or rancor. In the poem “Mirror” the mirror symbolizes time. Poets in modern days use mirror to symbolize the past. The old woman symbolizes experience. Most Americans take the elderly to retire homes. Their children lost the love they are supposed to have. The elderly symbolizes the inconvenience of todays live. In the poem “The Story of an Hour” the husband’s death symbolizes freedom. Today death symbolizes lost. In some countries people worship the dead. They worship the dead as a symbol for