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Symbolism as a literary tool essay
Importance of Symbolism in literature
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When Jeannette was still a child, her father presented to her a blueprint of a castle, which was to be made as soon as the family was able to get the funds to build it. It created the children’s false image that their father was very intelligent, and an amazing person. The title of this memoir is a symbol of Jeannette’s father making many promises that were extravagant, and also empty, causing the children to not believe Rex. The promises Rex made, where very fragile, and would be broken very easily, just like glass. The castle also symbolized the children’s hope in that their family, one day they would be able live a normal pure life, just like glass. They hoped that the moving would come to an end, and having all the basic necessities would
Children these days have a variety of needs, often being surrounded by the ideas of freedom and security. While some people seek complete freedom from society’s rules, others seek the comforts of security that a normal life provides. Children’s preferences on freedom and security are reflected from their Mom and Dad’s parenting style. In The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, the characters Brian, Lori, and Jeannette show that while growing they would rather have security over freedom because they repeatedly find themselves in a state of danger due to their parent’s lack of security. For example, if Jeannette’s parents were accountable while Jeanette was in proximity to fire she would not have been traumatized and severely burnt. Another reason the children want security is Rex is an excessive alcoholic who is very dangerous to be around while he is under the influence of hard liquor, they would rather a father that responsibly handled alcohol. Rex’s surplus of expenses on booze led the family into poverty because instead of using the family’s rare profit to pay off bills Rex uses it to buy alcohol and items that were not a necessity to their survival. Therefore, their parents struggled to give even the simplest things for them such as food and clothes.
Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, has most definitely responded to Faulkner’s outreach, and responded very strongly at that. She has more than accomplished her duty as a writer. Her memoir The Glass Castle is one of the most honest, raw, emotion and heart-filled pieces of literature ever to grace humanity. In this memoir, Walls uses many various rhetorical strategies to fulfill her duty as an author and embrace Faulkner’s message. Throughout the book, every range of emotion can be felt by the reader, due in large part to the expert use of Walls’ rhetorical strategies. These rhetorical strategies paint such vivid images that the reader can feel the sacrifice, the pity, and the love of Walls’ story as if they were standing alongside Jeannette herself.
The castle is as inviting to her as it had been to her father. The Beast is welcoming and not the ogre that she had originally thought he would be. Slowly as time goes by, they develop a bond of companionship...
The metaphor the Glass Castle represents is a perfect life that the family cannot have. The dad is a drunk, he has this big plan to build a castle made of gold with a cooling system in the desert. The only thing that makes that metaphor true is that it is impossible, the castle would overheat. Jeanette is important because she is the reason why the dad wants to build the castle, Jeannette is his little “mountain goat”, the child that he is really want to make happy. If he builds this castle they can have a perfect life, that is why he focus so much on trying to improve his prospector.
Sancha, Sheila. The Castle Story. 1st Harper colophon ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print. Harper Colophon Books.
Every good parent should support their child’s goals. In The Glass Castle, one of Jeannette’s goals was to finish her last year of college at Barnard, but couldn’t raise enough money to cover her fees. Her dad supported her when he opened a paper bag with $950 and a coat of mink that could sell for $50 (Walls 264). While he could have saved the money for himself, he was more concerned about his favorite daughter’s education. Jeanette’s dad thinks
Throughout the Glass Castle there is a constant shift in Jeanettes tone through her use of diction. Her memoir is centered around her memories with her family, but mainly her father Rex Walls. Although it is obvious through the eyes of the reader that Rex is an unfit parent and takes no responsibility for his children, in her childhood years Jeanette continually portrays Rex as an intelligent and loving father, describing her younger memories with admiration in her tone. The capitalization of “Dad” reflects Jeannette’s overall admiration for her father and his exemplary valor. “Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than everyone else in his stories”(Walls 24). Jeanette also uses simple diction to describe her father, by starting sentences with, “Dad said,” over and over. By choosing to use basic language instead of stronger verbs, she captures her experience in a pure and honest tone.
Rex has many good traits that show he can be a good father when he isn’t drinking. One of these traits is that he never gives up hope. He promises his family that he will build them a house called the Glass Castle, a place where they can finally settle down in one place and stop skedaddling. Jeannette describes the Glass Castle as “a house completely made of glass and had solar cells on the top that would catch the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity for heating and cooling and running all the appliances”(25). One other positive thing he does for them is that he teaches his children important skills like swimming, self-defense and how to read and write. In one part of the memoir, Jeannette and her father are at the Hot Pot, a sulfur spring in the hills and Rex uses a teaching method that would make him seem crazier than he really is. He throws Jeannette in
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a harrowing and heartbreaking yet an inspiring memoir of a young girl named Jeannette who was deprived of her childhood by her dysfunctional and unorthodox parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Forced to grow up, Walls stumbled upon coping with of her impractical “free-spirited” mother and her intellectual but alcoholic father, which became her asylum from the real world, spinning her uncontrollably. Walls uses pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to illustrate that sometimes one needs to go through the hardships of life in order to find the determination to become a better individual.
Jonathan Safran Foer once said, “Because sometimes people who seem good end up being not as good as you may have hoped.” Foer references to the belief that people who seem to be kindhearted have another side to their personality that may not seem to be as gracious as others perceived them to be. The idea of people having underlying components to their personalities has become a popular theme among literature as people tend to realize that the ones with a gracious exterior can end up being the most inconsiderate among society. An example of literature that affirms this belief of people with exteriors that contradict their personalities is The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is a classic example of detective fiction and
The statement that courage and imagination can be a driving force in helping someone in overcoming hardships, is prevalent in both Adeline Yen Mah’s, ‘Chinese Cinderella’ and Alfonso Cuaron’s film ‘A Little Princess’. Both these texts contain main characters who express their imagination to help them overcome the oppressive situations in which they are placed. In ‘Chinese Cinderella’, Adeline relies on writing to transport her to a place that is unaffected by the hardships she faces in reality. Furthermore, in the film, Sarah depends on imaginative story telling as a driving force to temporarily conquer the hardships she experiences. In addition, the characters in both texts develop attachments to various treasures that give them comfort and to take their minds off of their oppressive lives. For Adeline, she develops a friendship with a duck, whom she named Precious Little Treasure, whilst Sarah has an attachment with the doll her father gave her. Both of these are incapable of returning their affection, however Adeline and Sarah find comfort in imagining that their possessions understand them. Ultimately, the courage shown by both Adeline and Sarah allows them to overcome
Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Symbolism is a literary technique used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to liven up the story and give a deeper significance to the plot. Almost anything in the poem can be interpreted as a symbol in one way or another. The Green Knight, the green sash, and Sir Gawain's shield are three of the most prominent symbols presented to us in this author's tale. The Green Knight, this poem's antagonist, serves as a symbol himself. He is not only portrayed as evil, but a mixture of the familiar and foreign, nature and synthetic, and divine and damned origin. His large stature can
Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The Dark Knight, filmed in 2008, illustrates how Batman, with the help of Lieutenant Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, attempted to dismantle the criminal organizations that plague the city streets of Gotham. While Batman is considered the Dark Knight for Gotham because he attempts to bring justice to criminals outside the law, Harvey Dent symbolizes Gotham’s White Knight because he keeps the city safe without having to hide his true identity.
Submitting to Symbolism Every great author possesses the ability to create a novel deeply woven in symbolism and subliminal messages. Underneath the literal journey encountered in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness lies a tale saturated with subtle, yet, significant imagery that brings forth the true meaning of the novella. Throughout Heart of Darkness, Conrad uses a plethora of simple colors, objects, and places to convey multifaceted images and ideas. His fine execution of the tools of the English language allows him to quickly lure the reader aboard the Nellie and not release him until the horror is over. Although the interpretation of symbols in the Heart of Darkness is elaborate, due to their simplicity they are often overlooked.
American literature reflects life and the struggles faced during existence. Symbols are an eloquent way for an author to create a more fully developed work of art. The stories themselves tell a tale; however, an author also uses symbols to relay his message in a more subtle manner. Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the earliest authors to use symbols as an integral part of his plots. This is clearly seen in both The Scarlet Letter and in The House of the Seven Gables. The use of symbols causes an "association psychology" to enter into the story, making it more intriguing.1 In Nathaniel Hawthorne's romance The House of the Seven Gables, symbolism is used eloquently to enhance the story being told by providing the reader with a deeper insight into the more complicated intentions in the story.