The short stories "The Lottery" and "Everyday Use" used symbolism to express their main points. Different symbols involved in each of the stories gathered significant meanings, which enlightened the reader.
The main and most important symbol in "Everyday Use" was the quilts. The quilts revealed the mother's equal love for her children. "Maggie and Dee's mother promised Maggie that she would give her the quilts when she marries John Thomas" (Walker 69). Even though Dee was the brighter and prettier daughter, the mother promised Maggie the quilts after Dee rejected them. The quilts required hard and dedicated work by the mother and Big Dee. They did not make the quilts so that they could be on display, but they made the quilts for everyday use. Dee's desire for the quilts brought out her inner-self and true feelings towards her sister Maggie. Dee said, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts! She"d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use" (Walker 70). Dee did not want the quilts when she went to college, but when she returned she wanted them more than anything. Dee wanted the quilts because she was jealous of her mother giving them to Maggie. The symbol of the quilts brought out Dee's selfishness and cruelty.
One of the symbols in "The Lottery" was the stone. At the beginning, young children coming from school were collecting stones and putting them into piles. "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pocket full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example selecting the smoothest and roundest stones" (Jackson 78). The author makes the reader think of the stones as being non-harmful by referring to the stones as smooth and round. Little does the reader know that the stones are used at the end to stone a woman to death?.
The main and most important symbol in "The Lottery" was the black wooden box. "When Mr. Summers arrived with the wooden box and Mr. Graves with the three-legged stool, the crowd started to murmur, and they kept their distance away from the stool" (Jackson 78).
These "Garveyites" were awed by newspaper and newsreel accounts of the pomp of Selassie's coronation in Addis Ababa and took note of the sybolism in the choice of his formal title, Haile Selassie being an honorific meaning "Power of the Holy Trinity." ...
Sybolism In the short story, "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, symbolism is used frequently throughout the story. There are several different symbolic subjects in this story such as the house, Miss Emily as a "monument," Homer and the "Yankee" views, and Miss Emily's old Negro servant who rep...
" Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed stick which peirced through into the mouth," Golding illustrates vividly. Hard to believe from the quote to think that Jack started out to be a civilized boy just like the rest. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, it tells a story w...
In this respect to discover the colouring of The Secret Agent's moral universe the reader must explore the attitude that Conrad takes to the society he represents in the text by means of his authorial interventions as an impersonal narrator, by his treatment of the consequences of each of his character's actions and by the descriptive sybolism of the world he creates, the interplay of these factors resulting in some kind of moral conclusion. ...
In the short story, "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, symbolism is used frequently throughout the story. There are several different symbolic subjects in this story such as the house, Miss Emily as a "monument," Homer and the "Yankee" views, and Miss Emily's old Negro servant who represents death in the story. Miss Emily is compared to her house in many different ways, there is the description of the decaying house which symbolizes Miss Emily's physical and emotional decay, and as well as her mental problems. The representation between Miss Emily and the house is shown throug...
Piggy, Jack, Simon, and Ralph can all be seen as symbolic characters in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies. Golding uses symbolism to display his belief of the nature of mankind. He believes that the change from good to evil, from civilization to primitivism is unavoidable if there is not any direct authority over people. Piggy, an overweight asthmatic boy about 8 years in age, who cannot see without his glasses represents physical weakness and mental strength. His poor vision and obesity immediately establish to the reader his traits of physical infirmity and incompetence. ...
