Symbols In Iroquois Constitution, Moby-Dick, And The Rockpile

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The Importance of Symbols in American Literature A symbol is a person, place, or object that has meaning. Symbolism shows how certain things in a story impact characters lives and what certain things mean to them. In this paper the writer will analyze the symbolism of peace, power, and misfortune. The “Iroquois Constitution”, Moby-Dick, and “The Rockpile” all show strong examples of symbolism. In the, “Iroquois Constitution”, the writer shows strong symbolism of peace. “I plant the tree of great peace.” In this quote the author is trying to show you that the tree is refreshing and calming so when you sit under it that brings you lots of peace. “There shall you sit and watch the council fire of confederacy of the Five Nations, and all the affairs of the Five Nations shall be transacted at this place before you.” In this quote it describes the trees meaning and when you sit …show more content…

The symbolism in this story is shown through the power of a whale. “One of the boats has been sunk, and Ahab’s ivory leg has been broken off.” This sentence shows how the whales power overtakes the boat and takes it down. This may not be intentional the whale may not think about how strong it actually is and therefore the whale took the boat down but probably did not realize what it was doing. “Death to Moby-Dick!” In this quote they are wanting to kill him but they should not do that. The whale is an animal that is controlled by natural laws and is very unpredictable therefore they have no right to kill Moby-Dick because he has no control of his actions. As you can see people do not really think about how things really are they just see that the whale messed up one time so he needs to be killed, but in reality he has no control. The actions in this story symbolize how people think and perceive information about someone or something messing up. Many people are unforgiving and Moby-Dick is a great example of that

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