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  • Hi, I'm Mr. Sato, here to explain symbolism.

  • There used to be an anti-drug public service announcement that went like this. "This is

  • your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs." That's a kind of symbolism, and

  • you understand it instantly. The egg represents, or is a symbol for, your brain. The pan is

  • a symbol for drugs. The relationship between the two is that the drugs fry your brain.

  • Pretty obvious, right?

  • This is a kind of symbolism and you already understand it.

  • So, a symbol is a thing that represents or stands for something else, usually something

  • you can see or touch that represents something more abstract, the way a logo represents an

  • organization, or a heart represents a feeling. That's easy.

  • But those are visual symbols. Symbols can be written in words too. That's a little more

  • interesting because it isn't as obvious as an egg in a frying pan. Not only that, you

  • have to figure out yourself what the symbol represents. It could represent different things,

  • depending on how it's used.

  • For example: in a work of literature, what do flowers represent?

  • Love? Hope? Youth? Death? Just about anything?

  • The best answer is "Just about anything" because what a symbol represents depends on what's

  • around it... what's called context.

  • Let's say you're reading a story in which a woman receives flowers from some guy she

  • likes. The two are very much in love and she's really happy about getting the flowers. The

  • author describes the flowers in such detail that they seem more important than just flowers.

  • The image is made to stand out in some way, and if you're alert, you'll catch that. Later,

  • the author takes time to describe the flowers again. This time, they're wilted or dead.

  • An alert reader might see that the flowers are a symbol for something else, maybe the

  • love between the two people, and that the flowers' later, wilted condition is a sign,

  • or symbol, that their love has wilted or died as well. Get it? The flowers equal their love.

  • When the flowers die, it means their love has died.

  • We know the flowers mean this because the context of the flowers is the love story.

  • If the context was different, the meaning would be different. Let's say it was a story

  • about gangsters. The dead flowers in that story could represent the knowledge that the

  • character's life, like the flowers, will be short. It all depends on the context.

  • Or here's another example from film instead of literature. In an old Swedish movie called

  • Wild Strawberries, an old man takes a trip from one city to another. It's a long drive.

  • But if you look at the context of the story, you will see that the old man is also taking

  • a trip into his past, into his memories. And just as he encounters surprises and unpleasantness

  • on the physical trip, he's also discovering unpleasant things about himself and his life.

  • The road trip is a symbol for a journey of self-discovery.

  • Furthermore, do you see in that earlier example that it isn't enough to say that the flowers

  • symbolize the love? That's only half the job. You have to take one more step. You have to

  • look at what the author wants you to feel about the symbol. Because the flowers are

  • shown to be wilted, we're being invited to see that what happened to the symbol (the

  • flowers) has also happened to the thing it represents (their love). So you have to look

  • at the author's attitude towards that symbol. If the author's attitude is deeply respectful,

  • then we are supposed to feel respect as well. If the author's attitude when writing about

  • the wilted flowers is sad, then we're being told that maybe we should feel that way about

  • the two people's wilted feelings for one another as well.

  • I sometimes ask students to find symbols, like these, in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill

  • a Mockingbird. The mockingbird is a symbol. If a character we respect tells us that it's

  • wrong to shoot a mockingbird, then if the mockingbird is a symbol for something or someone

  • else, the author is saying it's wrong to harm that person or thing.

  • If you wanted to get a theme out of that symbol, just figure out what that symbol represents

  • in the real world, not in the fictional world. What in our world could be represented or

  • symbolized by the mockingbird? Certain kinds of people, maybe?

  • And once you get the hang of it, you'll see potential symbols in just about everything.

  • In To Kill a Mockingbird, you can't throw a stick and not hit a symbol: the mockingbird,

  • the mad dog, the housefire, Scout's ham costume, Jem's broken arm, Tom's disabled arm, Boo

  • Radley's isolation, the mud-and-snowman, the geraniums, the roly-poly, and one of my favorites,

  • the lightbulb at the jailhouse. The trick is seeing the relationships between things

  • in the book and then finding the same relationships somewhere else -- in other parts of the book,

  • or in the world we live in.

  • Furthermore, to my thinking, it doesn't matter whether or not the author put that symbol

  • there on purpose. If your imagination sees symbolic meaning, and you can support that

  • meaning with evidence from the book, then it's there. Thinking up a symbol is exactly

  • that -- thinking. Learning to think, not just know, is the most valuable thing you can learn

  • in school.

  • Just remember, 1) find something that stands out in the book, that seems to call attention

  • to itself, and look at the context around it. Next, 2) does that thing resemble something

  • else in the book, or in the world in general? One could be a symbol for the other. And 3)

  • look at the author's attitude towards it. Whatever we're supposed to feel about the

  • symbol, we're also supposed to feel about the thing the symbol represents.

  • The value in learning about symbols is that it teaches you to see beyond the surface of

  • a thing, of a person, of a real-life situation or event, and see the abstract relationships

  • at work there. If you can find meaning in a book's symbols, then you can find meaning

  • in your own life and your own world.

  • Now go find some symbols, and happy hunting!

Hi, I'm Mr. Sato, here to explain symbolism.

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A2 初級

符號和象徵意義解釋 (Symbols and Symbolism explained)

  • 46 3
    Chia-Yin Huang 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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