Questions tagged [symbolism]
Questions concerning symbolic features in a work of literature. Both symbols and the things they represent can be either tangible or intangible. Not to be confused with the [motif] tag or [meaning] tag. This tag is not to be used for questions about Symbolism as a movement in (mainly French) literature, unless such questions are about the use of symbols. See the tag wiki for more information.
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What do the silks and tattoos represent in Sui-Yun's poem about Eve?
One of the Peruvian writer Sui-Yun's Four Short Poems (translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue) is written as addressed to "Eve, my eternal mother".
I hope I'm not being excessively dirty-...
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Is there any connection between the reticence of Lady Anne and the cat-bird subplot?
While answering another question, I read Saki's short story The Reticence of Lady Anne" from his Reginald in Russia collection. Inasmuch as a story this short can be said to have "plotlines&...
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Symbolism of Billy Nolan in Carrie
Billy Nolan is a resentful, vindictive and abusive teenager who supplies Chris Hargensen with Pig blood for a prank that occurs within Stephen King's story Carrie. In it, King writes several passages ...
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Why so many poems about fish in Through The Looking-Glass?
Lewis Carroll's famous flight of fantasy Through the Looking-Glass, a sequel to the even more famous Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, contains a lot of nonsense poetry, much of which relates to fish. ...
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Why does the Whether Man live in Expectations, and why does he talk like this?
I've just started re-reading The Phantom Tollbooth, a fantastic tale of wit and wordplay. Every place and person that Milo meets through this story is rich in symbolism, and every piece of description ...
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Why is a sorrowing heart called "Sultan" and a stone heart called "burial site" in this verse of Saint Kabir?
I came across this verse of the great Indian poet Saint Kabir:
बिरहा बुरहा जिनि कहौ, बिरहा है सुलतान।
जिस घटि बिरह न संचरै, सो घट सदा मसान॥
birahaa burahaa jini kahau, birahaa hai sulataan
jis ghaTi ...
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In how many ways can you interpret this haiku poem? [closed]
What may be the possible (hidden) interpretations of this poem (written by me), which uses a form of Japanese poetry called 'haiku'?
a filled bow,
stretched with zest-
the smile flies
How would the ...
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"The Gift of the Magi" Literary Analysis: Symbolism and Time
In O. Henry's short story The Gift of the Magi, Della's hair is likened to a "brown waterfall." Why is that symbolism significant? I've been wracking my brain, and I was thinking it maybe ...
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Outline the symbolism of “The astronaut in Isolation” by Rosalind Morris
“The astronaut in Isolation” by Rosalind Morris is a poem that was published on Daily Maverick on 30 April 2020.
It's a new poem and there is no interpretation of this anywhere on the web. I would ...
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What does Mr World represent in the American Gods book?
The American Gods Wikia site claims that Mr World is a personification of globalisation. That definitely seems to be true in the TV series (see the creepiest rant ever made about salsa), but in the ...
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Symbolic interpretations of William Horwood's Callanish?
William Horwood's short novel Callanish is about a golden eagle in London Zoo and his struggles with captivity and freedom. It was Horwood's second novel about eagles, after the extraordinarily good ...
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Who is Yossarian's pal?
In Catch-22, Chapter 41 ("Snowden"), Yossarian is under medical care after an attempt on his life. He's apparently fading in and out of consiousness at this point:
Yossarian vomited, and Colonel ...
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Any significance to the "Dutch clock" and "Chinese plate" in Eugene Field's "The Duel"?
I just learned from an answer to an ID question about the poem "The Duel", or "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat", in which Eugene Field describes a vicious fight between two stuffed animals as told ...
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How is inner conflict presented in the poem "Tissue"?
We haven't studied this poem in class due to the COVID-19 outbreak and schools shutting down, but we have made annotations for the poem. However nothing about conflict came up.
Have you got any ideas ...
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Significance in Raskolnikov's name in Crime and Punishment?
The protagonist/antihero of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. As it says on Wikipedia:
The name Raskolnikov derives from the Russian raskolnik meaning "schismatic"...
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What is the reference to Kennedy in "Tomorrow Wendy" by Concrete Blonde meant for?
From the song "Tomorrow Wendy" by Concrete Blonde (link to full lyrics):
Underneath the chilly gray November sky
We can make believe that Kennedy is still alive
And we're shooting for the moon
...
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Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
Ezra Pound wrote a very short poem entitled "In a Station of the Metro". It is, in full:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
What kind of meaning and ...
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What is meant by "saints of forties and sevens" in this traditional Turkish hymn?
In the article "Ritual Change in a Turkish Alevi Village" by Thomas McElwain, I found a description of a sacrifice ritual which includes the following nefes (hymn?) recited for a ram:
Erler ...
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Meaning of “rose” and “bleu” in Alain Bashung's “Résidents de la république ”
Alain Bashung's song “Résidents de la république” (part of the album Bleu pétrole, 2008) contains the following lines:
Résidents, résidents de la république
Où le rose a des reflets bleus
The ...
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Social discrimination commentary in the Kite Runner
I have just recently got in touch with such an inspiring book called The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I was quite astonished by how the idea of racism and religious discrimination is stressed ...
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The meaning of the poem "Crucified" by Kahlil Gibran
I am a high school student, and my assignment was to find intertextuality of the crucifixion of Christ and write a reflection about it.
I was surfing on the web, and found a poem called "Crucified" ...
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What does this paragraph of "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth mean?
I'm (re-)reading "An Equal Music" by Vikram Seth and encountered the following paragraph which I do not understand.
For context, the book is written in first person perspective (although that isn't ...
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How do Pupp's remarks connect with Krazy's in Krazy Kat, 25 July 1936?
This question is about the same Krazy Kat strip (25 July 1936) as in Krazy language in Krazy Kat, 25 July 1936, in which Krazy is making a lot of classical references and Pupp is responding:
Krazy: ...
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What is the effect of the stage directions in scene 6 of The Glass Menagerie?
In Scene 6, page 50 line 27, there's the following stage direction:
Low drums sound
when the doorbell rings and Laura is required to open the door to let Jim and Tom in. What is the effect of this ...
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The significance of Lucky's speech in 'Waiting for Godot'
In Samuel Beckett's play 'Waiting for Godot', Lucky is the slave of a character called Pozzo. Unlike the other characters in the play who talk compulsively,Lucky utters just two sentences in the play, ...
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How can "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" be read as a commentary on Scotland?
In the Wikipedia page for Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, one of the mentioned interpretations of the story is as a symbolic representation of Scottish nationalism vs union with ...
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What is the significance of the traveler carrying writing materials in Ivanhoe?
The Jew's dress, which appeared to have suffered considerably from the storm, was a plain russet cloak of many folds, covering a dark purple tunic. He had large boots lined with fur, and a belt around ...
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Why is Hemingway's generation a ‘lost generation’?
I recently began reading Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast. In it, Hemingway and his contemporary Americans are described as a ‘lost generation’:
It was when we had come back from Canada and were ...
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What is the significance of "half past two" in Wolfgang Borchert's The Clock and The Bread?
In both The Clock and The Bread by Wolfgang Borchert there is a mention of the events happening at "half past two" in the morning. I have been unable to find a historical event of World War Two that ...
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Who is the falcon, and who the falconer?
In Yeats' greatest of poems, he writes that "the falcon cannot hear the falconer."
Who is the falcon and who is the falconer?
Why might Yeats have chosen this metaphor?
The Second Coming
...
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Who is "Sylvia" in Steinbeck's "The Pastures of Heaven"?
This short passage is quoted from chapter II of J. Steinbeck's The Pastures of Heaven:
George cared for his house and kept a flower garden in front of it.
The upper story of the house had never ...
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Is there any significance to the format of Aziz's name?
One of the main protagonists in the outer frame story of Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love is a man named Aziz Z. Zahara. This name immediately struck me because of its interesting relationship ...
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How to distinguish between imagery and symbolism?
I know that symbolism and imagery are two powerful devices of modern literature, especially of poetry, but a problem arises when I try to have a clear understanding of these devices. When a word or a ...
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What is the effect of using “silver” to describe the “horn” in "Madman's Song" by Elinor Wylie?
Here is the poem "Madman's Song" by Elinor Wylie (from The Prose and Poetry of Elinor Wylie , by William Rose Benét):
Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
Better to see your temple
worn,
...
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Symbolism in "The Jewel of the Secret Treasury"?
The poem "The Jewel of the Secret Treasury" by the famous Persian poet Hafez reads very much like a love poem, but I'm failing to pick up on the precise details of the metaphor:
The jewel of the ...
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Religious symbolism of the Telmarines?
The religious symbolism in C.S. Lewis's Narnia books is well known and, in many cases, very clear: Aslan is Jesus, the Calormenes are a very stereotypical portrayal of Muslims, the Dwarfs may ...
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Bright Lights, Big City: Why is the story Coma Baby included in the novel?
In Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, in which way does the story of the Coma Baby symbolises the life of the main character? Why has the author included it?
No doubt that it has much to do ...
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What role or symbolic purpose do polar bears serve in The North Water?
The North Water by Ian McGuire is a modern novel in the tradition of historical realism, set in the high arctic. It is a violent, masculine novel with a clear debt to the work of Cormac McCarthy which ...
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What does flying represent in "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home"?
In "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home", Robert Hayden makes reference to flying back to Africa. In the second to last stanza, he says:
My gran. he flew back to Africa,
just spread his arms and flew ...
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How does Dee Raain use the Mirrors to highlight negative human traits in the poem "Mirror of Truth"?
The poem "Mirror of Truth" by Dee Raain is as follows:
What is seen in the mirror is nothing more than a person with lies and hate.
With sadness and traits
Of discrimination and disgrace.
...
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"I've seen your flag on the marble arch"
From Leonard Cohen's "Halleluj'ah":
Baby, I've been here before --
I know this room, I've walked this floor:
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the ...
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How do the letters S, U, F, I symbolise the stages of Aziz's life?
In Elif Şafak's novel The Forty Rules of Love, in Aziz's correspondence with Ella, he tells her his life story, completing the final part when he meets her in person. Each part of his life he refers ...
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Why are the chapters in The Bastard of Istanbul named after ingredients of ashure?
The Bastard of Istanbul is a novel by Elif Şafak which explores Turkish and Armenian culture and history; you can read a summary and 9-page excerpt online. One of the questions from the "reading guide"...
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Is there any significance to the choice of similes for poetry in "Some Like Poetry"?
The poem "Some Like Poetry" by Polish writer Wislawa Szymborska is a musing lament about the unpopularity of poetry among the general population. The middle verse consists of a series of similes which ...
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Origin of symbolic interpretation of Prospero's breaking of his staff?
At the end of The Tempest, which is generally believed to be the last plays that Shakesepare wrote alone, Prospero breaks his staff and drowns his book. This has often been read as Shakespeare telling ...
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Pissing in a sink in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
In Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, at some point one of the main characters - Thomas, that is a Czech doctor - in the house of one of his lovers decides to piss in the sink. The ...
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How is black being portrayed in "Black, Their Regalia" by Darcie Little Badger?
Black features fairly prominently in "Black, Their Regalia" by Darcie Little Badger - it's in the title, and black is fairly prominent throughout the story. The Apparently Siblings play neoclassical ...
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What is the symbolism of the Western Wind (or Zephyr)?
I was reading some poetry and I stumbled upon the four-line 'Western Wind' by Anonymous, written in the 16th century:
Western wind when wilt thou blow
the small rain down can rain
Christ if my ...
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Is Dorothea's nickname metaphorical?
In Middlemarch by George Eliot Dorothea Brook's nickname is Dodo.
Or actually to be exact her sister, Celia Brook's nickname for her is Dodo.
Is this an allusion to Dorothea's almost extinct kind?
...
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What is Nick Bostrom's 'Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant' an analogy of?
Available, freely, online, is Nick Bostrom's The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant (2005), an essay or short story about a fictional dragon's tyranny and effect on/cost to society.
CGP Grey adapted it into ...
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