Symbolism; The Underlying Message

Symbolism; The underlying message

Symbolism is something that is used mostly by authors, to help stories develop and add a deeper meaning to their work. Sherman Alexie's "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" and William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" both have symbols that give a profound look on how their stories develop. Although Sherman Alexie and William Faulkner’s stories are written in different styles, they have similar symbols. Death, smell and setting combine to give a myriad of deeper meaning to the stories. The symbol that means the most in both stories is death.

Death is a massive symbol that is in the two stories. Alexie’s story “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" states that, “Victor hadn’t seen his father in a few years, only talked to him on the telephone once or twice, but there was still a genetic pain, which was soon to be pain as real immediate as a broken bone.” (Alexie 273), which shows that even though Victor did not care for his father as much as he had hoped before he died, Victor still lost his father, and to him, losing a loved one, even though not known as well as others is still painful. This can be compared to in a similar way in "A Rose for Emily". She cared for a man who she thought could be the one she would spend her life with. She did not want to let him go and when they found her dead body in the house they also found another. “The man himself lay in the bed. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckold him.”(Faulkner 40). This quote shows that Emily did not want Homer to ...

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...om a place where wildlife flourished in Washington to a desert in Phoenix, where wildlife was scarce , how much killing an animal effected them because they had not seen an animal the majority of the time they were in Phoenix.

Using symbols in stories are a great way to have the reader take the story a go a level underneath to try and find out what the story really means. Authors use this technique to get the reader more involved into the story and try to make a connection. Alexie and Faulkner show that with their symbols presented they rewrite another story in between the lines. These two stories show symbols like death, smell, and setting to show the reader what might happen next and put the reader into the story.

Works Cited

Kennedy, XJ, and Gioia, Dana. Backpack Literature. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.