Symbols In Wise Blood, By Flannery O Connor

Their appearances can consequently be said to be greatly symbolic of their role within the narrative. The use of colour is also symbolic of character sexuality "Red hots!!" or "face and neck the colour of oxblood leather", Red is symbolic of passion and is connected to McMurphy and Stanley, whereas the colours "ivory"[5] and "pale blue"[6] are used in describing the weaker characters that deny sexuality. The individuals' role within the narrative is dependant on the conflict that arises, in these texts, due to variations within their own sexuality and society's subsequent reactions. Sexual imagery also surrounds the characters; McMurphey and Stanley further giving, once more, indication of their sexuality "big stiff thumb" or "having those coloured lights going", more subtly there is also animalistic imagery "Stanley stalks fiercely". The images constructed are emblematic of the characters sexuality in the same way as the physical descriptions previously.

Another symbol that we see in this story “Young Goodman Brown” is the pink ribbons that faith uses in her cap. “He looked back and saw the head of faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 137).This seems to symbolize the ribbons as having a sort of positive emotion in this case towards the presence of Goodman Brown. In this story there were quite a few symbols that symbolized important events or ideas through the entire

In some parts of the narrative, Night, Wiesel used eyes to display the hope and positive emotion in characters. In the beginning of the story, eyes were used as an indication of Moche the Beadle’s calmness in the following quote. “I

The name “Owl Eyes” is appropriately fitting; an owl’s nocturnal vision allows it to see things in what others would normally perceive as pitch black. Like an owl, this knowing stranger correctly assesses Gatsby’s feigned personality. Owl Eyes makes his final appearance as one of the few guests at Gatsby’s funeral. He sympathizes, “‘Why, my God! they used to go there by the hundreds.’ He took of his glasses and wiped them again, outside and in. ‘The poor son-of-a-bitch’” (175). Owl Eyes’ glasses are a symbol of his discriminating perception. In the manner of how their literal function is to correct vision, the glasses also metaphorically protect his judgment from the corruption of the distorted morals and ethics characterized by the East; before making his final conclusion about Gatsby, Owl Eyes cleans his glasses, as if wiping the fogginess of subjectivity and immorality off of his observations.

Scott and Orwell both express the psychological control throughout the utilisation of symbols in order to remind the audience of the symbolic nature of various objects in the respective plots. Orwell employs symbols such as the telescreens, which are television like screens controlled by the party, which symbolises that the party is always watching, emphasising the idea of constant control in the film. Scott utilises a contrasting symbol of eyes to portray a similar feeling of control, the motif of eyes is depicted around Deckard in the scene where he is chasing Zhora, (a replicant that Deckard has been tasked to retire), in a range of medium shots and close ups the bright eyes are depicted around Deckard in order to display the control that he lives in, and how he is constantly monitored in this futuristic society. This symbol of an eye is utilises by Scott in the replicant test scene, where Rachael 's

O’Connor incorporates symbols to reveal Christ like figures, further emphasizing the theme. One example is young Lucynell. As Mr. Shiftlet is walking toward them, young Lucynell is wearing a blue organdy dress, which represents the Virgin Mary. Also, her blue eyes show her innocence and heavenly appearance (The Sitting Bee). Another symbol is the rusted car. The car represents something that Mr. Shiftlet has always wanted. It is painted green, which can represent redemption, and has a yellow band, which may be seen as betrayal. The last example is the character’s names. Crater means emptiness or that something, religion or Christ, is missing. Also Shiftlet is taken from the word shift to represent change or the difference between good and evil. With these Christ like symbols,

Coming back from the war, Hazel Motes’ mindset is simple – following a commission of sharing his gospel. O’Connor uses inanimate objects to draw comparisons and also contrast Haze’s secular and spiritual sides. One of the objects in Haze’s life that becomes an obstacle for him is his hat. The issue with Haze’s hat is shown by saying, “Haze had a stiff black broad-brimmed hat on his lap, a hat that an elderly country preacher would wear” (O’Connor 4). As Haze tries to escape his preacher image, many around him see the hat as an indication of his spirituality. This frustrates him, as he rejects any title that one may give him concerning religion. In “Nervous Shadow Walking Backwards,” the author describes the reason why this affects Haze so much by saying, “In literature, a character’s hat often symbolizes identity, the selfhood of the character. Haze’s hat is mistaken throughout the book as a preacher’s hat, an identity that he rejects” (Bolton 91). Because of his desperation to escape this reputation, Haze purchases a new hat that, counterintuitively, attracts the same comments as before. O’Connor uses this hat to symbolize the inability of Haze to escape the image he so intensely despises.

The first way the author uses symbolism to show the overall theme is with color. Numerous times in the novel Janie is wearing a

These eyes, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, represent many things to the characters in this novel. He represents, hope, despair, and God, all while staring

______. His red hunting hat is symbolic of many things. He wears it during important times such as writing the composition about Allie’s baseball glove, yet he seems to be embarrassed to wear it in public. “I took my old hunting hat out… and put it on. I knew I wouldn’t meet anybody that knew me” (122). Even though he lacks confidence to wear it frequently, it becomes a part of how he sees himself. He acknowledges that it’s “corny” but he personally likes how it looks; it is a symbol of his uniqueness and desire to be different. The red color of the hat is also noteworthy, the same as Allie and Phoebe’s hair. He may associate ‘red’ with purity and innocence those characters represent and wears it as a connection to them.

Complicating Hazel's confused conceptions of entrapment, sin, and Christianity is the episode involving the Melsy carnival, at which Hazel and his father pay to see a woman lying in a coffin. Hazel's father has a lustful reaction to the woman; he says "Had one of themther built into ever' casket . . . be a heap ready to go sooner" (32). Haze's "shut-mouthed" mother, who O'Connor describes as having a "cross-shaped face," senses Haze's guilt when he returns home (32-33). Telling him that "Jesus died to redeem you," she whips him with a stick, leaving him with a "nameless unplaced guilt" (33). The actions of his parents leave Motes unable to distinguish what is good and Christian from what is forbidden and evil. He associates his grandfather with Christianity but also

When Roy gives Jack his Winchester .22 rifle, it is a pivotal point in the story, as throughout the next few years of his life, the rifle will remain a symbol of power for Jack, power that he does not have through ordinary means. Immediately after receiving the Winchester, Jack becomes obsessed with this power. He begins pointing the rifle at people out the window and Wolff writes, “I sometimes had to bite my lip to keep from laughing in the ecstasy of my power over them, and at their absurd and innocent belief that they were safe,” (Wolff 25). Jack enjoys the feeling of power he gets when he is in control of someone else’s life, but he recognizes that, “Power can be enjoyed only when it is recognized and feared,” (Wolff 25). The Winchester

In Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, Aylmer feels that his wife Georgiana is a miracle and that she is perfect. Her only flaw was the birthmark in the shape of a hand placed on her cheek. Instead of focusing on all her Georgiana’s perfections, Aylmer only focused on one of her flaws, the birthmark. Aylmer constructs a statement about her birthmark saying that, “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.”(Meyer 345)

Another major symbol in this novel is the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. These are a pair of spectacles painted on an old billboard in the Valley of Ashes. The significant aspect is that this symbol only has meaning when other characters instill it with meaning. The eyes represent a higher power looking over the

There are a lot of symbols throughout the last rung on the ladder. The author Stephen King did a good job of trying to hide the symbols but I think I’ve found some of them. For example I think that the hay is birth and no hay is death also the ladder is someone trying to get reborn or renewed. In my opinion there might be a lot of hidden symbols when it come to the important objects of the story. Early in the story Kitty said how when she first fell into the hay she had been and felt reborn. And at the end of the story when she died there was no hay to keep her from dying.