【正文】 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 and cri ti que of symbols t hem selves. Thomas Pynchon’s V. conti nues along m uch t he sam e li ne, testi ng an alphabeti cal symbol. Another exampl e is Her man Mel vil le’s Moby Dick, in which t he huge whi te whal e in t he ti tl e of the book acquir es greater meaning t han t he li teral dict ionar ydef init ion of an aquat ic m am mal. I t al so suggest s more t han the devil, t o whom some of t he char act er s li ken it . The huge whale, as the stor y unfolds, es t o i mply an ampl it ude of m eanings: am ong them t he for ces of nature and t he whole univer se. Lit erary symbol s ar e of two broad t ypes: one t ype i ncl udes t hose embodying uni versal suggesti ons of m eaning. Flowi ng water suggest s ti me and eter nity, a j our ney into the under worl d and r et urn f r om i t i s int er pret ed as a spir i tual experi ence or a dark ni ght of the soul, and a kind of r edempt ive odyssey. Such symbol s are used wi de l y (and someti mes unconsci ously) i n west er n l it er atur e. The ot her type of sym bol secur es i ts suggesti veness not f rom qual it ies inherent in it self but fr om the way i n which i t is used in a gi ven work, in a special cont ext. Thus, i n MobyDi ck the voyage, t he l and, and the ocean are objects pr egnant wit h meanings that seem al most i ndependent of the author ’s use of t hem i n the st or y。 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。 for i nstance, t he ways sentences ar e connected. Thi s is t he int er nal or gani zati on of a text. Under cont ext, roughly the mater ial, ment al , per sonal, i nt eracti onal, soci al, insti tut ional , cul tur al , and hi st ori cal sit uat ion i n which t he di scour se is m ade, we consi der t he ext er nal r elati ons of t he li terar y text or a par t of the t ext , seeing i t as a di scourse pr esupposing a social rel at ion between i ts part ici pants (author and reader , character and char act er , char act er and r eader, etc.) , and a shari ng of knowl edge and assum pt ions by part icipants. Cohesion: Does the t ext contain l ogical or other li nks bet ween sentences ( eg coor dinati ng conj unct ions, l inking adver bial s) , or does it t end t o r epl y on i mpli ci t connect ions of meani ng? What sor t of use i s made of cr oss r efer ence by pr onouns (she, i t, t hey, et c), by subst itut e for ms ( do, so, et c), or el li psi s? Is t her e any use m ade of elegant var iati on—t he avoidance of r epet it ion by subst it ution of a descr i pt ive phrase ( as “t he ol d l awyer ” substi tutes f or the r epeti ti on of an ear li er “Mr Jones”) ? Are meani ng connect ions r ei nfor ced by r epet it ion of wor ds and phr ases, or by r epeatedly using wor ds fr om the sam e sem ant ic f ield? Cont ext : Does t he wr iter address the r eader di r ectl y, or t hrough the wor ds or thought s of some fi ct ional char act er ? What l inguisti c clues (eg f ir st person pr onouns I, m e, 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