and

Symbol:

An object, a setting, an animal, or a person that represents itself and something more than itself.

Allegory:

A work of literature where characters and places stand for abstract

qualities, for example: Mr. Mean, Sea of Troubles.

An Allegory is basically a story where EVERYTHING in the story is symbolic of something.

Fable is an allegory where animal characters symbolize good and bad qualities and personification is often used. Eg. The Rabbit and the Tortoise,

Parable is an allegory that is a brief story, set in every day world, that teaches lessons about ethics or morality.

Cultural or Universal Symbols A cultural or universal symbol is one recognized and shared as a result of common social and cultural heritage. One example is the flag, a national symbol. Another example, and one that exists across cultures, is water.  What might water signify?

Life, rebirth, strength, cleansing of soul and body

Animals often function as universal or

cultural symbols.

Allegory

Most fables have two levels of meaning. On the surface, the fable is about animals. But on a second level, the animals stand for types of people or ideas. The way the animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says something about the nature of people or the value of ideas. Any type of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning in this way is called an allegory.

Animal Farm is strongly allegorical, but it presents a very nice balance between levels of meaning. On the first level, the story about the animals is very moving. You can be upset when Boxer is taken away by the horse slaughterer without being too aware of what he stands for. But at the same time, each of the animals does serve as a symbol. The story's second level involves the careful critique Orwell constructed to comment on Soviet Russia.

Time for a quiz! What do these

symbols represent?

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Allegory or symbolism? Or both?

The Allegory of the Cave

In the allegory, Plato likens uneducated people to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire.  Between the fire and the prisoners there is a ledge, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see.

Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.

Color Symbolism:

Red

Blue

Green

Yellow

Brown

Black

White

Purple

love, blood, fire

water, calm, tranquilty

nature, jealousy, greed, good luck

joy, happiness, hazard

earth, outdoors, earth

darkness, evil, night

innocence, good, purity

royalty, nobility, mourning

Quiz 2:

Try again!

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Jimi Hendrix – All Along The WatchtowerThere must be some kind of way out of here said the joker to the thiefThere’s too much confusion I can’t get no reliefBusinessman they drink my wine plow men dig my earthNone will level on the line, nobody of it is worthHey hey

No reason to get excited the thief he kindly spokeThere are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke but uhBut you and I we’ve been through thatAnd this is not our fate so let us not talk falsely nowThe hours getting lateHey, hey

All along the watchtower princes kept the viewWhile all the women came and went bare-foot servants to, but huhOutside in the cold distance a wild cat did growlTwo riders were approachingAnd the wind began to howlHey, ohAll along the watchtower, hear you sing around the watchGotta beware gotta beware I will Yeah Ooh baby all along the watchtower

Red Roses: deepest love and

expression

Pink Roses: thank you or appreciation

White Roses:

purity and humility; happiness

Yellow Roses:

joy, friendship

Religions are often represented by symbols.

In the novel Animal Farm, the entire story is a symbol for the evils of communism, with the main animal characters representing key figures in the Russian revolution. The novel can be read entirely as a children's story, but when you come to realize what the various elements and characters in the story symbolize, the novel takes on a whole new meaning. That's why this particular work has become such a classic. This kind of story is called an allegory.

The movie series Star Wars has been described as symbolic of faith and religion in our world overcoming evil.

The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling could be seen as containing a lot of symbolism, although there are as many interpretations as there are creatures in the books! One clear example is a commonly used one; the use of a snake to represent evil. It is no coincidence that the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent.

Plan the symbolism so that it becomes an integral part of the writing, instead of an obvious add-in. For example, if you were writing a story about how an old man suffering from a terminal disease lives out the last few months of his life, you might make the setting of your story autumn in a city, where the onset of winter has obvious (and not very pleasant) effects on the surroundings. The cold winds, shortening days, and lowering temperatures all could symbolize the drawing to a close of the man's life.