Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analyze Native Son by Richard Wright
Critical analysis on native son
Importance of literature in modern society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analyze Native Son by Richard Wright
Symbols: the basis of all literary works. Without symbols books become boring and lifeless. Symbols assist the reader in discovering a deeper meaning. In Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, symbols are used to show death, faith and living in a white run world.
In the first book, readers are introduced to the rat. Bigger is shown attempting to destroy the rat. When the rat is deceased, he appears as a “flat black body… [with] two yellow tusks” (6). With this death, Bigger’s murder streak starts. In the gruesome death of the rat, the ghastly deaths of Mary Dalton and Bessie Mears are foreshadowed. Mary’s death- while not gruesome at first- then turns suddenly violent when Bigger “sawed the blade into the flesh… [and] sent the blade of the hatchet into the bone of the throat” (92). Though Mary initially died by suffocation, her head being chopped off is as disturbing as the death of the rat. However, Bessie’s death was terrifying from the start. Bessie was murdered in the most atrocious manner. Bessie is not only raped, but bludgeoned to death by Bigger “[lifting] the brick again and again” (237). Bessie’s appalling death is the worst of all the deaths. Bessie appears to have done nothing wrong yet she is murdered at the hands of Bigger out of fear. Wright’s use of the rat as a symbol shows how death is a horrendous event in life.
Wright’s use of the cross helps readers recognize faith. After Bigger is arrested, he is soon visited by his mother’s preacher, Reverend Hammond. The reverend visits Bigger in an attempt to convince him that he must have faith in God. After praying for Bigger, Reverend Hammond “[draws] from his pocket a wooden cross with a chain upon it” (286). The Reverend then placed it around Bigger’s neck where it “[hangs] next to the skin of Bigger’s chest” (286). The cross presented to Bigger is Hammond’s attempt at forcing Bigger to believe and hope for something better. The cross is once again seen when Bigger is leaving the Dalton home, yet this time it is in a negative light. As Bigger exits the Dalton home, he sees a “[looming]… burning cross” (337). Bigger then questions if “white people [wanted] him to love Jesus too” (337). It is not until people are yelling at him that this is a cross of hate, not love and faith. When Bigger returns to the van he “[grips] the cross and [snatches] it from his throat” (338).
A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning. Symbols can be very useful in shedding light on a story, clarifying meaning that can’t be expressed with words. It may be hard to notice symbols at first, but while reflecting on the story or reading it a second time, the symbol is like a key that fits perfectly into a lock. The reason that symbols work so well is that we can associate something with a particular object. For example, a red rose symbolizes love and passion, and if there were red roses in a story we may associate that part of the story with love. Although many symbols can have simple meanings, such as a red rose, many have more complex meanings and require a careful reading to figure out its meaning. The first symbol that I noticed in Ethan Frome is the setting. It plays an important role in this story. The author spends much of the first few chapters describing the scene in a New England town Starkfield. When I think of a town called Starkfield, a gloomy, barren place with nothing that can grow comes to mind. As the author continues to describe this town, it just reinforces what I had originally thought.
Symbolism is a major literary device that helps people see a book through symbols that often have a deeper meaning. A symbol is used to explain something in a different way, using images, objects, etc. instead of just saying it in words. As you search for a deeper meaning in a work of art or literature, it can help you understand the authors intentions and the deeper significance of a work. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, symbols help reinforce the major themes of the book. Fire and flames have been used as symbols by many authors.
The symbols that are used in literature can have a large impact on the story and what the reader pulls out from the story. If there was no symbol used in To Kill a Mockingbird, people would miss a lot of the story going on and they may not see the more innocent side of the story. Although symbols are used in many different forms, the one used in To Kill a Mockingbird made the story what it was. The mockingbird gave the story a whole different approach. By using a symbol in the story, the author was able to make th...
A symbol is a unique term because it can represent almost anything such as people, beliefs, and values. Symbols are like masks that people put on to describe their true self. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author uses Tom Robinson and Arthur Radley to represent a mockingbird which illustrates the theme of innocence by presenting these characters as two harmless citizens that do not pose a threat to Maycomb.
Through the cat, Wright foreshadows the murder of Mary. Bigger's reaction to the cat, being stone-still, could be easily used to describe Bigger's reaction when Mrs. Dalton walks in the room, and how he felt...
Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie explores the concealed world of the Indians on the Spokane Reservation. Sherman Alexie exhibits humor, sadness, and reality through his main character, Arnold aka Junior, to make readers understand what the Native Americans are enduring. Indian reservations have had a long history of being prison-like homes to some of the most culturally rich and spiritual people in the world. In modern society, hopeless Indians that inhabit these reservations suffer through desperate poverty that continues to dominate. In this dark world filled with poverty
Symbolism is used commonly in literature to reveal a deeper meaning through something indirectly. As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, symbolism is “ the art or practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations” ("Symbolism."). From colors and emotions, such as red and romance, to animals, like doves and peace, symbols better a readers understanding of the text and make for an overall better story. Symbolism gives writer freedom to add double levels of meanings to his work: a literal one that is self-evident and the symbolic one whose meaning is far more profound than the literal one. The symbolism, therefore, gives universality to the characters and the themes of a piece of literature ("Literary Devices."). In the text, A Doll’s House, the author, Hendrik Ibsen, uses symbols of macaroons, the Tarantella, and money to reveal controversial topics between Nora and Torvad.
According to Google, symbolism in literature is defined as the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. Symbolism can be seen throughout media and in many pieces of literature including To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In the book, the symbol of the mockingbird represents the character Boo Radley, and how his story teaches people to not always believe what others have to say about someone without being able to prove it true for themselves.
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a variety of symbols to represent ideas, or abstract notions or conceptions about people, places, and things. A symbol, according to the Webster's Dictionary, is an object that stands for something in addition to its literal meaning. In the book, there is a continual breakdown of society and civilization on the island. During this breakdown, Golding uses symbolism to further explain the process. Some of the things he symbolizes in the novel are the island itself, the conch, the boys clothing, and the violence.
“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used by the author to represent abstract ideas or concepts.” Symbolism in literature is the depth and hidden meaning in any piece of work. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a powerful and evocative novel laced with symbolism. The most obvious is the symbol of the scarlet letter itself, representing Hester’s sin of adultery. Hawthorne’s other symbols are less obvious and are very often obscured in the novel.
In many stories, symbols included by the author add deeper meaning. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one author who mastered the skill of using symbols effectively. The Scarlet Letter is regarded as a "symbolic masterpiece" due to Hawthorne's exceptional use of the scarlet letter, the setting, and Pearl as symbols.
A symbol is an object used to stand for something else. Symbolism has a hidden meaning lying within it; these meanings unite to form a more detailed theme. Symbolism is widely used in The Scarlet Letter to help the reader better understand the deep meanings Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays throughout his novel. He shows that sin, known or unknown to the community, isolates a person from their community and from God. Hawthorne also shows this by symbols in nature around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest.
In the dystopian novel, Brave New World, Huxley uses symbols to create meaning and to get his agenda across. The use of sex and reproduction, and Shakespearian writing and religious texts, as symbols in the novel help to push Huxley’s agenda that total government control is devastating, and the inner human drive to be an individual can never be suppressed. Also, the fact that the novel was written in 1931 shows that Huxley was attacking the newly forming Socialist nations.
In the short story “Signs and Symbols,” Vladmir Nabokov entices the reader with the story of a concerned elderly couple who visits their mentally unstable son on his birthday at the sanitarium. This visit is further complicated by the son’s attempt to take his life, which compels the hospital staff at the sanitarium to prevent the parents from meeting their son. This circumstance then embarks on the difficult journey that life has been for this mother and father of their mentally deranged child. Nabokov provides a touching story to his readers and does this through: the illustration of the characters, the setting, and keeps the readers interest by presenting the story in a suspenseful way that it leaves the reader thirsting for more.
A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. (2009 Open-Ended Question for AP English Literature and Composition).