What Is The Use Of Symbolism In Beginning Again, By Franz Wright

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, William Butler Yeats’ “The Song of Wandering Aengus” and George Orwell’s 1984, each literature piece exemplifies all of the connections in Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of a Hero’s Journey in order to demonstrate the changes in the character’s development and the motivation behind their transformation.

Life is beautiful because of the complex nature that it is. There are moments of pure bliss and happiness that one doesn’t want to go away. However, there are also problems and challenges that lay in the journey and it takes great courage to keep. It is a concept that is not easily explained if symbols and metaphors are not used for it. These examples of figurative language often help make the concepts of transitions, positions, and experiences seem clearer.

The poem A Story by Li-Young Lee is the complex story of a father, son and the way their relationship changes as time goes on. The bittersweet use of symbolism and imagery makes readers feel the emotion behind the boy’s plea for a story and the father’s frustration at not being able to think of one and his fear of his son leaving him.

Many authors often use symbolism to express a deeper meaning. They use the symbols to connect an unrelated thought or feeling into their literary work they are writing. Edgar Allan Poe frequently uses this literary device in his works. Symbols are many times seen in his poems and in his short stories. Many symbols are evident in Poe’s works “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Black Cat.” Because Poe’s works are typically dark, his use of symbols is in a dark way. Although there are many types of symbols manifested in these stories, Poe’s works generally include a symbol that eludes death or the end of something and many include references of sight and vision.

What defines a “good” or “bad” person? The answer is complicated because we all have different perspectives on what we believe to be right and wrong. We as individuals have our own set of ethics by which we try to use when making decisions. However, when a person encounters a difficult dilemma, that choice can impact and even alter a person’s life. “Good People” by David Foster Wallace is an informative and insightful story of a young, unwed, Christian couple that are facing the conflicts of an unplanned pregnancy. Although outwardly this story seems to focus on “to abort” or “not to abort,” the underlying theme focuses on the internal conflicts the young man faces when weighing out the consequences of a decision. David Foster Wallace uses symbolism and an omniscient third person point of view in “Good People” to illustrate the internal battle one faces when dealing with the moral and religious dilemmas such as an unplanned pregnancy.

Wherein this is the extent of the metaphor, where in this poem it is a changeable anomaly subject to the readers interpretation of taking the road less travelled and whether it be a positive (sigh of satisfaction) or negative (sigh of regret). This is all one can hope when using a metaphor relating to the readers life, that they substitute their own feelings and create their own meaning, their own attitude towards to such decisions and subsequently, such journeys.

Imagine a society where books are banned, technology has taken over and is on the verge of a world war. This is what you encounter when reading the totalitarian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury from the perspective of the protagonist Guy Montag, a fireman with the task of burning every still existing book there is. Throughout the course of the novel, he begins questioning his current life-situation and evolves from a workaholic to a rule-breaking rebel in a matter of days. Considering the occupation of the protagonist, fire coincidentally has a significant role in this story, however, the symbolism changes coherently with Montag himself. The meaning of fire and burning provides dimension and depth and thus making it a food for thought type

In Richard Wright’s “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Dave finds himself throughout the course of the story. Throughout the story, Dave is constantly seeking the pleasure of obtaining and then eventually shooting a gun in order to be a man and find himself. However, Dave does not expect the consequences that are to follow the pursuit of pleasure. The moral of the story pertains to the role pleasure and its consequences have in development and finding oneself. The story narrates a common, but little talked about problem, that runs rampant in today’s society. In the story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Richard Wright illustrates Dave’s development, or lack thereof, through the symbols of the gun, the train, and the mule.

William Golding kills off everything important to survival and by this he means that the world is doomed. So many significant objects are broken by the end of the book, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, which is a novel about a bunch of inexperienced boys being trapped together on an island and are forced to find means of survival. There are a lot of symbols in this book that all represent the only way they can survive. Each symbol represents a piece of the world and how it functions. Without all of these pieces, the world can’t function. William Golding clearly shows that the world is doomed by one by one killing off all of the objects and symbols that keep them sane and alive.

In the poem, the purpose of symbolism is using an object or reference to describe a deeper meaning to a story. The poem " Music of Spheres" by displayes that how to use symbolism to describe an object with deeper meaning. This poem is written by Jean Follain who was a French author, poet and corporate lawyer. The reason why I selected this poem, is because Jean Follain only used a few sentences to reflect its deep symbolic meaning of this poem. Language makes us human. It helps us to understand our everyday experience and ideas. It will become more powerful by using symbolism instead of the customary language. In the written world, the role of symbolism in the poem is significant. It produces the same feeling as

Even when people are in their greatest moments of despair people have the ability to find hope. Much like in the Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Wanderer”, the main character, having lost his kinsmen and lord in war, battles with his own loneliness but attempts to remain hopeful for the day that he will find a new home and purpose in life. Through the use of elegiac tone and symbolism the unknown author shows that if a person wants to overcome their depression they must remain hopeful.

Throughout the book Black Boy by Richard Wright sheds light on the interesting life of the writers personal memories. Richard is living in a community coming out of slavery as a first generation feeling freedom. His life starts off at a young age and spans through till his days as a successful writer. Many motifs throughout his life repeats in his writing topics. During his years fire is a common perspection expressed in many metaphorical ways and physical, this expression extends to his educational, religious, and psychological mindsets.

In the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Dream of the Rood,” anonymous authors give way to the idea that an Almighty God will solve every problem a person has by doing two things: 1) drawing upon the memories of a warrior who has lost everything near and dear to him due to war, and 2) entering the dream of a man who has been exiled and isolated. Each piece takes its reader through the trials and tribulations that one may not relate to in this era, yet the reader is still there alongside the character wanting them to find peace with their world and themselves. Initially, it is believed that the characters will overcome their hardships and achieve the happiness they seek. However, as the reader delves deeper into the character’s story, there is an overwhelming sense of incompleteness. What actually happens at the end of each piece is not written in stone - telling us the story is not whole - nor has a conclusion been reached. The intrapersonal thoughts being shared with the reader reveal the obstacles that keep an overall wholeness from occurring.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel written to highlight the intriguing lives and misconceptions that are often identified with African culture. Achebe writes Things Fall Apart from the African view, a foreign perspective that sees westerners as the outsiders and Africans as the insiders. Focusing on a clan in lower Nigeria, Achebe profiles the clash of cultures that erupts when white Christians colonize and spread their religious ideals. Achebe is able to make his book so popular to the entire world because of his expert use of symbols like drums, locusts, and fire. These common symbols in which drums represent the beat of all civilization, locusts represent invasion by an outsider, and fire represents destruction, all aid

It is human nature to interpret and reinterpret life and find meaning of one’s place in the world. Without such knowledge, or belief for that matter, any possibility of humanity is lost. Hence, humans are plagued with the necessity to interpret themselves and their connections to their surroundings—both human and physical. Because one’s connections and contexts for interpretation are endless in some sense, humans are inherently a divided self—the culmination of all given interpretations they make for themselves and interpretations from others. In addition, this totality of interpretations through the lens selves as being what is around you, it follows that poetic-rhetorical language is necessary in discussion of the divided self.