Symbols in Literature

Symbols…Allegories and Parables are symbolic ergo

(Def.) A Symbol: a concrete object to represent an abstract idea. Symbols come in two kinds:

Symbols that are universal to all literature:

• The most familiar of these to us are the 26 letters of the alphabet.

• Others have been used for the same things so long that they have those meanings and all authors know them. If they are using them they are accepting the meaning or playing with it.

Symbols that are unique to the work:

• These symbols are developed by the author for their own purposes through the significance they are given.

• These symbols can be a hybrid of a unique symbol added to a universal symbol.

Symbols in “The Blue Stones” Discuss the Parable with a partner/group. What are the

symbols in this story? List them and what abstract idea they seem to represent.

Is each symbol unique or universal?

Discuss the story with a group, what do you believe that the blue stones represent? Be ready to defend your answer by taking information and details from the story.

Are the blue stones a hybrid? If so what part is universal.

Literary Rule…Assume the author of anything you read is better at it than you. He or she knows what these universal symbols mean and knows that you a good reader does too.

Round 1Colors Nature Weather The

WildernessHuman Life

10 10 10 10 10

20 20 20 20 20

30 30 30 30 30

40 40 40 40 40

50 50 50 50 50

Round 1

Colors – 10 points White innocence, life, light, purity, or

enlightenment

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Colors – 20 points Black seen as a cold and negative aspect

suggesting passivity, death, ignorance, or evil; black hens are used in witchcraft as are black cats

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Colors – 30 points Purple royalty, bruising or pain

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Colors – 40 points Red immoral; the color of the life principle,

blood, passion, emotion, danger, or daring; often associated with fire

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Colors– 50 points Blue cool, calm, peaceful; an insubstantial color

in the real world except as translucency, the void of heavens

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Nature – 10 points

Spring birth, new beginning

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Nature – 20 points Water washes away guilt, origin of life,

regeneration, vehicle of cleansing

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Plot – 30 points Gold the perfect metal; a reflection of heavenly

light; it suggest the sun-fertility, wealth, dominion; it is a male principle

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Nature – 40 points Darkness evil, ignorance, danger

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Nature– 50 points Weeds evil (hemlock, pigweed, etc…),

wildness/outcasts of society

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Weather – 10 points Rain sadness or despair or new life; a symbol of

celestial influences the Earth receives

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Vocabulary – 20 points Fog/Mist prevents clear vision or thinking; represents

isolation; mist is often the symbol of the indeterminate phase in development when shapes have yet to be defined; they are preludes to important revelations or prologues to manifestations

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Weather – 30 points Thunder: the voice of God or gods

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Weather – 40 points Wind and Storms violent human emotions

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Weather – 50 points Rainbows: intermediaries and pathways between

Heaven and Earth; mostly are generally heralds of good and are linked with cycles of rebirth, they may also serve as prologues to disturbance

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Wilderness – 10 points Dove peace, purity, simplicity

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Wilderness – 20 points Lion a solar symbol, power, pride

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Wilderness – 30 points Owl wisdom, rational knowledge; messenger of

death

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Wilderness– 40 points West is the land of evening, old age, and the

descending passage of the sun

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Wilderness– 50 points Fox slyness, cleverness

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Man – 10 points Eyes windows to the soul or barometer of

emotions

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Man – 20 points Mask externalize demonic tendencies

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Man– 30 points Chain symbolizes the bond which connect

Heaven and earth or ties together two extremes or beings

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Miscellaneous – 40 points Blood symbolizes all the integral qualities of fire

and the heat and vitality inherent in the sun; it also corresponds to vital and bodily heat

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Miscellaneous– 50 points Tower of Babel confusion, human pride, resulted in multiple

languages

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