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SymbolismIn creative writing

& life

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When things represent ideas they’re symbols

A mask hides your true face with a false one. That might be just for fun, on Halloween or at a costume party say. In other contexts, however, it means something. As many pointed out in our discussion of the short film “Identity” hiding your true face can stand for hiding your true identity. Living a lie. So the physical thing, the mask, stands for a set of ideas.

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Actions can be symbolic too

Taking off that false face is important. It carries meaning: I re-claim my identity. It’s a symbolic act. Have you ever performed a symbolic act? There’s a forum thread for discussing symbols and symbolic acts in our lives.

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A jar of herring snacks?

Any thing or act can be a symbol if the context (poem/story/play/life etc.) gives it meaning. In this scene from “A & P,” the manager just confronted the girls in bathing suits with “This isn’t a beach.” Queenie blushes. . . . "My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks." Her voice kind of startled me [Sammy thinks], the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over "pick up" and "snacks." All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them.

To the young Sammy, a jar of herring snacks stands for (is symbolic of) a wealthy lifestyle.

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Writers use re-use symbolOnce the thing is linked to the idea – herring snacks to wealth – the writer can use it later as a kind of shorthand."We are decent," Queenie says suddenly, her lower lip pushing, getting sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy. Fancy Herring Snacks flashed in her … eyes.

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Symbols & Symbolic actions in our lives

Getting matching tattoos is a weighty symbolic action: tattoos are permanent.

And here the tattoos themselves are symbols. They say, We fit together like lock and key. Or perhaps You open me.

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Types of symbols

Cultural/conventionalUniversal Personal Literary

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Cultural/conventional SymbolsThings & actions develop pre-set meanings within a

culture. Most everyone understands.

• The color red = warning, danger (stop light)• Red line = not (don’t feed the geese)• Doves = peace (releasing doves at opening ceremony)• Circle = wholeness, unity (wedding rings)• Water = purification (baptism)• The flag = love of country (on veteran graves)

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Symbols in different cultures

In European culture the color black has come to symbolize death and is worn at funerals. In other cultures, Asian for example, white often symbolizes death and is worn at funerals. Traveling can be exciting and also disorienting because of changing symbols. Even shaking the head left and right, which means no to us, actually means yes in some places. Or a general I see what you mean, I agree. Could lead to some amusing misunderstandings!

For up to 20 Bonus Points, tell the story of a time when you misunderstood a cultural symbol.

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Universal SymbolsSome Things and actions have the same symbolic meaning around the world because we share biology and . . . a world.

• Morning = new beginnings • Green = spring, rebirth • Candle = a light in the darkness• Lions = power • Chains = bondage

Caution. What IS universal? Darkness = danger, or safety? Red = blood/death or (in China) joy/marriage? Are snakes symbolic of evil in every culture?

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The serpent gets a bad rap in Judeo-Christian cultures

But in other cultures it symbolizes spiritual energy

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Personal Symbols

Our experiences give meaning to things & actions • A sled stands for winter fun to a child who’s moved

to Florida• The smell of butterscotch means Gramma, because

she always has butterscotch gum in her purse• Geese leaving means change to one person• Geese leaving, to someone else, means togetherness• Always touching the lawn gnome before a trip means

“We’ll be back.”

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Read the symbolism in your life • Are there actions you repeat, for good luck?• Do you have recurring dreams?• Do you own things you associate with friends and family? Items you’d

hate to lose? • If your best friend was leaving forever, what would you give him/her to

remember you by?• Do you have a tattoo? What does it mean to you? What would it mean

if you had it removed? • Do you own anything that if you lost it would ruin your day? (And not

just because of the cost.) • Do certain songs remind you of certain times and places?• Do certain numbers when you see them convey some meaning to you?

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Literary Symbols

Creative writers, film makers, song writers, visual artists all create about and for people in cultural contexts. They can’t not use symbols. Even words are symbols – just marks on the page that stand for things and ideas. C A T =

As we consume culture, we absorb the symbols like a plant absorbs light. In studying literature, we look closer at symbols and symbolic actions in order to get the full meaning and enjoyment and also to better understand ourselves and our culture.

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Something is a literary symbol if it…

• Keeps coming up• Is given detailed and poetic description • Appears in prominent places – the title, first line, the

ending, the climax• Suggests the theme• Is dynamic, gathering meaning throughout the piece• Is deep, not easy to pin down, carrying more

meaning than even the writer knows – about the writer; their culture; or about human nature itself

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A Paring Knife as Symbol

In “The Paring Knife” (pp. 240-241), the knife is in the title, the opening and the ending. It’s a real object (not a metaphor). It’s also a symbol that stands for a fight a couple had years before. When the speaker finds the knife under the refrigerator, he remembers the fight. When the woman he loves sees the knife and slides it back under the refrigerator, it’s a symbolic act. As if she has said: Let’s forget about that big fight we had. Or even, Let’s never fight again.

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Symbolism in A Doll’s House

The last action of the play is Nora closing the door to the house. What a symbolic act as she ends her marriage, closing the door on that too. Some pointed out in the forum how taking off her tarantella costume before the confrontation over Krogstad’s letter is important. She is symbolically saying, I’m not playing dress up anymore, or performing for you. Let’s get real.

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In The Great Gatsby, which many read in high school, there is a green light at the end of Gatsby’s dock. It comes to symbolize all that he’s been reaching for and dreaming of. But because his goals and dreams grow out of the past, he’s always pulled backward.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.