Symbols
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| symbol/ˈsɪmbl/ | An object, image or action that represents an idea beyond its literal meaning. |
A symbol 象征 is made, not found
- When a material object comes to represent, or stand for, an idea or concept, it becomes a symbol.
- Comes to is the working phrase: the object is not born symbolic.
- So the analysis has to show where in the text the object acquired its meaning.
A key is not a symbol just because a literature student spotted it; wait for the text to turn it.
The CED's phrase for how an object becomes a symbol is that it...
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So the analysis must show where the text attached the meaning.
Characters can be symbolic too
- When a character comes to represent, or stand for, an idea or concept, that character becomes symbolic.
- The CED adds that some symbolic characters are so common they are archetypal — and repeats its note: the exam will not require students to identify or label archetypes.
- So write about what the character represents, never about which archetype they are.
Write the middle band- 'is associated with' is defensible where 'represents' is not
You should identify which archetype a symbolic character belongs to.
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The CED repeats here that the exam will not require labelling archetypes.
Common symbols versus contextualised ones
- Certain symbols are so common and recurrent that many readers have associations with them prior to reading a text.
- Other symbols are more contextualized and only come to represent certain things through their use in a particular text.
- The second kind is where the marks are, because the text alone can prove it.
Common, contextualised, or not yet a symbol?
Sort each object by its status in the text.
Select all the CED's statements about kinds of symbols.
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There is rarely one correct meaning, which is why an essay must argue its reading.
An object is not born symbolic — show where the text made it one. The CED's phrase is comes to represent, so an essay must point at the repetition or scene that attached the meaning. Asserting that a river "symbolises time" without that evidence is a guess dressed as a reading.
The marks are in ____ symbols, because the text alone can prove them.
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Common symbols rely on associations the reader brought with them.
Meaning depends on reader and context
- A symbol can represent different things depending on the experiences of a reader or the context of its use in a text.
- So there is rarely one correct meaning, and an essay must argue for its reading rather than assert it.
- The context half is the arguable half: show what this text made the object mean.
Put the symbol pass in order.
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The second step is the one that separates a reading from a guess.
A symbol pass
- Name the object or character, and the idea it comes to represent.
- Quote the place where the text attaches the two — usually a repetition or a scene.
- Say whether the symbol is common or contextualised, and argue the reading rather than assuming it.
A coat appears in chapter three as a coat. In chapter eleven it is offered and refused; in chapter twenty-eight it is mended by the wrong person. By then it has come to represent what the family will and will not accept from each other — and every step is quotable.
An object or character comes to represent an idea — show where. Some symbols are common (readers arrive with associations); others are contextualised and mean only what this text made them mean, which is where the marks are. Meaning depends on reader and context, so argue the reading. Never label archetypes.