1. Symbolism and Allegory Page 402
CCRS – L
Literary Skills – Understand Imagery and Allegory

2. What Is a Symbol?
A symbol is an ordinary object, event, person, or animal to which we have attached a special meaning.

3. Where Do We Get Symbols? Public symbols
have been inherited, or handed down over time
are widely known
show up in art and literature

4. Where Do We Get Symbols?
What does each of these symbols stand for? Why do you think they have taken on the meanings they have?
justice
love
luck

5. Where Do We Get Symbols? Invented symbols
come about when writers make a character, object, or event stand for some human concern
sometimes become well known and gain the status of public symbol

6. Symbols in Literature Writers use symbols to
suggest layers of meaning that a simple, literal statement could never convey
speak more powerfully to the reader’s emotions and imagination
make their stories rich and memorable

7. Symbols in Literature Quick Check
What might the cake symbolize in this passage?
The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it A centrepiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it
“What do you think that is?” she asked me, again pointing with her stick; “that, where those cobwebs are?” . . .
“It’s a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!”
from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
What is your emotional response to the description of the cake?

8. Allegory
Allegory—a story in which characters, setting, and actions stand for something beyond themselves, such as
abstract ideas
moral qualities
historical figures or events

9. Allegory Allegories can be read on two levels: literal and symbolic
are often intended to teach a moral lesson or make a comment about goodness and vice

10. Allegory
Characters and places in allegories often have names that reveal their symbolic significance:
Characters
Places
Death
Vanity
Good Deeds
Ignorance
Celestial City
Vanity Fair
Hill of Difficulty
Valley of Fear

11. Allegory
Quick Check
What do you think Everyman, the main character of the allegory, stands for?
One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end.
—summary of “Everyman”
What comment about fellowship, beauty, and strength does this allegory make?

12. Allegory
Quick Check
On a symbolic level, what does it mean that only Good Deeds stays with Everyman to the end?
One day, Everyman is summoned by Death to give an accounting of his life. Everyman ask his friends Fellowship, Beauty, Strength, and Good Deeds to go with him to tell Death that he has led a good life. Only Good Deeds stays with him to the end.
—summary of “Everyman”

13. Practice p. 403
A. Think about the great number of symbols we’re surrounded by in everyday life. For starters, identify what the items below stand for. Then, see if you can explain the basis for the symbol—why is this symbol appropriate for what it stands for?
A snake
An eagle
Spring
An owl
A white flag

14. Practice p. 403
B. Here is a brief poem that works on two levels: a literal level and a symbolic level. A fen is a swampy place. What does the fen symbolize in this poem?
I May, I Might, I Must
If you will tell me why the fen
appears impassable, I then
will tell you why I think that I
can get across it if I try.
—Marianne Moore

15. ISN Write a short allegory in which you teach a lesson about life.
Using four sticky notes, create foldables to match the sample.
Remember to reinforce the sticky part with glue.
Under the flap, put the definition of each of the terms.
On the facing page in your ISN,
Complete the following activity:
Write a short allegory in which
you teach a lesson about life.
Name the characters in your
story using the qualities they
represent. Use the story of
Everyman as an example
(p. 403). Make sure you establish
a setting, have clear characters,
and teach a moral lesson.