【正文】 , my, mi ne) ar e there of t he addr esser addresse r elati onship? What at ti tude does t he aut hor i mply towar ds hi s/ her subject? I f a char act er ’ s words or thoughts are represent ed, is this done by dir ect quotati on, or by some ot her met hod (eg i ndi rect speech, fr ee indi rect speech) ? Are there signi fi cant changes of styl e wi th r espect t o dif fer ent persons (nar ator or char act er ) who i s supposedly speaki ng or thinki ng the wor ds on the page? What i s the poi nt of view of the story? Ar e t he fr equent shi ft s of poi nt vi ew? If so, in whose voice is the nar at or speaki ng? Chapter Seven Symbol What i s symbol ? Symbol, in the sim pl est sense, anythi ng that st ands f or or r epresent s somet hi ng else beyond it—usual y an i dea convent ional ly associ at ed wi th i t. Obj ects like f lags and crosses can functi on sym bol ical y。 and wor ds ar e also symbols. (P. 218. Oxf or d Concise Di ct ionary of Li ter ar y Term s. ) A symbol i s a t hi ng that suggest s mor e than i ts l iter al meaning. It exists widely even i n our dai l y l if e. Our l anguage it sel f is symbol. The dai ly gr eet ings i ndi cat e that the pasage of m uni cat ion i s open. Ri ng is a symbol of et er nit y. The s ign of cr oss i ndi cat es at onement. The Bi g Ben symbolizes London, the Gr eat Wal China. Rit ual ist ic acts are symbol ic. In church wedding t he bri de is handed over fr om the f at her t o the gr oom. Holy eati ng is symboli c of munion, bapti zing cleansi ng a nd rebir th. The rai si ng and loweri ng of a national fl ag cer tainl y suggest m eani ngs l ar ger than the acts t hem selves. And fi nal ly t oast ing and shaking hands on for mal or infor mal occasi ons. As r het ori cal devi ce, symbol is dif fer ent f rom metaphor, which i s li ter al ly false but fi gur ati vel y tr ue. Unl ike al egor y, whi ch repr esents abst ract term s li ke “l(fā) ove” or “tr uth, ” symbol s ar e perceptibl e objects. I n l it er atur e al most anythi ng—part icular object s, character s, set ti ng, and acti ons—can be symboli c if t he aut hor wi shes t o make it so by eit her hi nti ng or i nsi st ing that he mater ial means m ore t han it li ter al ly does. Symbol s ar e suggest ed t hr ough special tr eat ment such as imagery, repeti ti on, connot at ive l anguage, or other ar ti stic devi ces. I n F. Scot t Fitzgeral d’ s novel The Gr eat Gatsby, a huge pair of bespectacled eyes st ar es acr oss a wi l dness of ash heaps f rom a bil lboard advert ising t he ser vices of an oculi st . Repeatedly appear ing in t he st ory, the bespectacled eyes e to m ean m or e t han si mply t he avai labil ity of eye examinati on. A char act er i n the st or y pares it t o t he eyes of God。 he hi nts t hat som e sad, passionate spir it i s br oodi ng as it wat ches the passi ng procesion of humanit y. Such an object i s a symbol: in lit eratur e, a symbol is a thing t hat r efers or suggests m ore t han its lit eral meani ng. Ther e ar e quit e a lot of sym bol s that appear in or dinary lif e, for the use of sym bol i s by no means of l im ited t o l it er ature and ar t. For instance, a dove is a symbol of peace, t he fl ag is t he symbol of a count ry, and the cross is t he sym bol of the Chr ist ian r el igi on. These ar e sym bol s adopt ed by a whole soci ety and are recogni zed by al l member s of such a society. Ther e ar e other ki nds of symbols, such as f igure 3, whi ch may be abst ract symbols. But symbol s in l it eratur e works ar e dif ferent fr om ei ther of the other types. General y speaking, a l iter ary symbol does not have a m on social aceptance, as does t he fl ag。 i t is, rather, a symbol the poet or t he wri ter adopt s for t he pur pose of his/ her wor k, and i t is to be under st ood onl y in the context of t hat wor k. I t dif fers fr om t he kind of sym bol i l ust rated by t he fi gur e 3 because i t i s c oncr et e and specif ic. A poet or a wri ter uses symbols f or the sam e reason he/ she uses simi les, metaphor s, and i mages, et c: they hel p t o expr es hi s/ her meaning i n a way t hat wi l appeal t o the senses and to t he emoti ons of t he reader . Most symbols, in lit eratur e and ever yday l if e as wel , possess a tr emendous condensing power. Their f ocusing on t he rel at ionshi ps bet ween the visi bl e ( audibl e) and what they suggest can ki ndl e it i nto a si ngl e im pact. Of course, in l it er ary wor ks, symbols, unl ike t hose i n ordi nar y l if e, usual ly do not “st and f or” any one meaning, nor f or anyt hing absol utely def init e。 t hey poi nt, they hi nt , or, as Henr y James put i t, t hey cast l ong shadows. Symboli sm The t er m symboli sm r efers to t he use of symbols, or t o a set of r elated symbols, which i s one of t he devi ces t hat enri ch short f ict ion and pensate f or its br ief ness in space. 2. There are two broad t ypes of l it erary sym bol s Symbol is gener al y acknowledged to be one of t he most f requent ly em pl oyed devices in poetr y. In wor ks of fi ct ion i t is no l es f requent and no l ess i mport ant . The f act i s that, when a r eader reads a wor k of fi ct ion, his f ocus i s mostly cast upon t he plot , t he char act er , and t he language used, so t hat t he symbols ar e automati cal ly backgr ounded on t he reader ’s par t. But in some novels and stor ies, t he symbol ism l ooms so lar ge that he reader wi l l f ail t o get a pr ehensi ve under st andi ng of the wor k wi thout paying speci al at tenti on to t he sym bol s. The Scarl et Let ter by Nathaniel Hawt hor ne is one of such wor ks. The very ti tle poi nts t o a doubl e sym bol : the scar let let ter A wor n by Hest er conveys a mult ipl e of senses whi ch dif fer greatl y fr om what i t lit eral y stands for , and t he work eventual y develops i nto a t est