【正文】 symbol of et er nit y. The sign of cr oss i ndi cat es at onement. The Bi g Ben symbolizes London, the Gr eat Wal China. Rit ualist 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 and 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 se lves. And fi nal ly t oast ing and shaking hands on f or 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 ei ther hi nti ng or i nsi sting that he mater ial m eans m ore than it l it er aly does. Sym bol s are suggested t hrough special tr eat ment such as im ager y, r epeti ti on, connot ati ve language, or other art isti c devi ces. In F. Scot Fit zger al d’s novel The Gr eat Gat sby, a huge pai r of bespectacled eyes st ares acr oss a wil dness of ash heaps fr om a bi l boar d adver tisi ng the services of an ocul ist. Repeat edl y appeari ng in the stor y, t he bespect acled eyes e to mean more t han si mply the avai labil it y of eye exami nat ion. A char act er in t he st ory par es i t to t he eyes of God。t ypes of sentence are used, what is t hei r functi on? Sent ence plexit y: Do sent ences on whole have a simpl e or a pl ex str uct ur e? What is t he aver age sentence lengt h? Does pl exity var y str ikingl y fr om one sentence t o another? I s plexit y mainl y due to ( i) coordi nat ion, (i i) subor dinati on, ( i i) j uxt aposit ion of clauses or of other equi val ent str uct ures? In what part s of the text does pl exi ty t end to occur ? clause types: What t ypes of clauses are favored—r elati ve cl auses, adverbial clauses, or di f erent types of nomi nal clauses? Ar e non f init e for ms monl y used, and i f so, of what types ar e t hey ( inf ini tive, i ng f or m, ed for m, ver bles st ructur e) ? What i s their f uncti on? Clause st ructur e: I s t her e anyt hi ng signif icant about cl ause elements (eg f requency of objects, adverbial s, plements。 he hints t hat some sad, pasionate spir it i s brooding as i t wat ches t he passing procesi on of humanit y. Such an object is a symbol: i n li ter at ure, a sym bol i s a thi ng that refer s or suggest s more than it s li ter al meaning. Ther e are qui te a l ot of symbols t hat appear i n ordinar y li fe, for t he use of symbol i s by no means of li mit ed to l it eratur e and ar t. For i nstance, a dove i s a symbol of peace, the f lag i s the s ymbol of a countr y, and the cr oss i s the symbol of t he Chri st ian r eli gi on. These ar e symbols adopt ed by a whol e soci ety and ar e recogni zed by al l members of such a societ y. There ar e other kinds of symbols, such as f igure 3, whi ch may be abst rac t symbol s. But sym bol s in lit eratur e wor ks ar e dif fer ent f rom ei ther of the other types. General ly speaki ng, a l it er ary symbol does not have a m on social acceptance, as does t he fl ag。 its syll ables, t he nar rat or t els us, “cast an Easter n enchantment over m e. ” Even a locale, or a featur e of physical t opogr aphy, can pr ovide r ich symbol ic suggest ions. The caf233。 for instance, t he ways sentences ar e connect ed. Thi s is t he inter nal or ganizati on of a text. Under cont ext , roughly t he mater ial, mental , per sonal, int er act ional, soci al, insti tuti onal , cul tural , and hi st or i cal si tuati on in whi ch the di scourse i s made, we consider the external rel at ions of the l it er ary t ext or a part of t he text, seing it as a discour se pr esupposi ng a soci al r elati on bet ween it s par ti cipant s ( aut hor and r eader, char act er and character, char act er and r eader , et c. ), and a shar ing of knowledge and asumpti ons by par ti ci pant s. Cohesi on: Does t he text contai n logical or ot her l inks between sent ences (eg coordi nat ing conjunctions, li nki ng adverbi al s), or does i t tend to reply on impl icit connecti ons of m eaning? What sort of use is made of cross ref er ence by pr onouns ( she, it , they, etc) , by substi ute f orm s (do, so, etc) , or el ipsis? I s there any use made of el egant var iat ion—t he avoi dance of repeti ti on by substi tuti on of a descri pti ve phr ase ( as “the old lawyer” subst it ut es for t he r epet it ion of an earl ier “Mr Jones”) ? Ar e meaning connecti ons r einf or ced by repeti ti on of wor ds and phr ases, or by r epeatedl y usi ng words f rom the same semant ic fi el d? Context: Does the wr it er addr ess t he r eader dir ect ly, or thr ough t he wor ds or t houghts of some f icti onal char act er? What l inguisti c clues (eg f ir st per son pr onouns I , m e, m y, mi ne) ar e there of t he addr eser addr esse relat ionshi p? What at ti tude does t he aut hor impl y towar ds hi s/her subject? I f a char act er’ s words or t houghts ar e represent ed, i s this done by di rect quotat ion, or by some ot her m et hod (eg i ndi rect speech, f ree i ndi rect speech) ? Ar e there si gni fi cant changes of st yl e wi th r espect to di f er ent persons (nar rator or char act er ) who i s supposedly speaking or thi nki ng the wor ds on the page? What is t he poi nt of vi ew of the stor y? Are t he fr equent shi ft s of poi nt vi ew? If so, in whose voice i s the nar ator speaking? Chapter Seven Symbol What i s sym bol ? Symbol, i n the sim plest sense, anyt hi ng that st ands f or or represent s som et hing else beyond it—usual ly an i dea convent ional y asoci ated wi th