【正文】 d wi th i t. Obj ect s like f lags and crosses can functi on sym bol ical y。, but an i sl and of r efuge f rom sl eepl ess night, chaos, loneli ness, ol d age, t he meani ngl esness of li fe, and impending death. In some novels and stor ies, some characters ar e symbol ic. Such character s usual y appear bri ef ly and r emain sl ightl y mysteri ous. I n J oseph Cornard’ s Heart of Darkness, a st eamship pany t hat hir es men to work i n Congo mai nt ains in it s wait ing r oom two wom en who kni t bl ack wool —t hey sym bol i ze t he cl assi cal Fat es. Such a char act er i s seen as a por t r ai t r at her t han as a per son, at l east por t r ai t l i ke. Faul kner ’ s Mi ss Em i l y, t wi ce appear s at a wi ndow of her houses “l(fā) i ke t he car ven t or so of an i dol i n t he ni che. ” Though Faul kner i nvest s her wi t h l i f e and vi gor , he al so cl ot hes her i n sym bol i c hi nt s: she seem s al m ost to 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。 it s syl lables, the nar at or tel s us, “cast an East ern enchant ment over me.” Even a l ocal e, or a f eat ur e of physi cal topography, can provide r ich symboli c suggestions. The caf 233。 they point, t hey hi nt, or, as Henry James put it, t hey cast long shadows. Symbol ism The t erm symbol ism refer s to the use of symbols, or to a set of related symbols, which i s one of the devi ces t hat enri ch shor t fi ct ion and pensate f or it s bri ef nes i n space. 2. There are two broad t ypes of l it erary symbols Symbol is general y acknowl edged t o be one of t he most fr equentl y employed devi ces i n poet ry. In works of f icti on it i s no less fr equent and no l es i mport ant . The fact is t hat , when a reader r eads a wor k of fi cti on, his f ocus i s mostl y cast upon the plot , the char act er, and the l anguage used, so t hat t he symbol s ar e automat icaly backgrounded on the r eader’ s par t. But i n some novels and stor ies, t he sym bol i sm looms s o l ar ge that the r eader wil l fai l t o get a pr ehensive under standing of the wor k wi thout payi ng special at tenti on to the symbols. The Scarlet Let er by Nat hani el Hawt horne i s one of such works. The ver y ti tl e points t o a double symbol: t he scarl et l et ter A worn by Hest er conveys a m ul ti ple of senses which dif f er gr eat ly f rom what it li ter al ly st ands f or, and the wor k event ual ly devel ops into a test and cr it ique of symbol s themsel ves. Thomas Pynchon’ s V. cont inues al ong much the same l ine, t est ing an al phabetical sym bol . Anot her example i s Herman Melvi l e’ s MobyDi ck, i n whi ch the huge whit e whale i n the t it le of t he book acquir es gr eat er meaning than the l it er al di cti onary def ini ti on of an aquati c mammal . I t also suggests mor e than t he devil , to whom some of the characters l iken i t. The huge whal e, as t he st ory unf ol ds, es to impl y an ampli tude of meani ngs: among them the f orces of nat ur e and the whol e uni verse. Li ter ar y symbols are of t wo broad t ypes : one t ype includes those embodyi ng universal suggest ions of meani ng. Fl owing wat er suggests t ime and et ernit y, a journey i nt o t he underwor ld and r etur n fr om i t is i nterpr et ed as a spi ri tual experi ence or a dark night of t he soul , and a ki nd of re dem pti ve odyssey. Such symbols ar e used wi del y ( and somet imes unconsciousl y) in wester n li ter at ure. The other t ype of symbol secures i ts suggesti venes not fr om quali ti es inherent in i tself but fr om t he way in which it i s used i n a gi ven wor k, in a speci al cont ext . Thus, in Moby Di ck the voyage, the l and, and the ocean ar e object s pregnant wi th meani ngs t hat seem alm ost independent of t he aut hor’ s use of t hem in the stor y。 he hint s that some sad, passi onat e spi ri t is br ooding as i t watches t he pasing pr ocessi on of humani ty. Such an obj ect is a sym bol : in li terat ur e, a symbol is a thing that r efer s or suggests m ore t han it s li teral meaning. Ther e ar e quit e a l ot of symbols t hat appear in or dinary li fe, for the use of sym bol i s by no means of l im it ed to l it er atur e and ar t. For instance, a dove is a symbol of peace, t he fl ag is t he sym bol of a count ry, and the cross is the sym bol of t he Chri st ian r el igi on. These ar e sym bol s adopt ed by a whole society and ar e recogni zed by al l members of such a society. There 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 er atur e works ar e dif ferent fr om ei ther of the other types. General y speaking, a l iter ar y symbol does not have a mon social aceptance, as does t he fl ag。 for i nst ance, the ways sent ences ar e connected. This i s the int ernal or gani zat ion of a t ext . Under context, r oughly the mat er ial , m ent al, per sonal, i nteracti onal , social, i nst it ut ional, cultur al, and histor ical sit uat ion in whi ch the discourse is m ade, we consi der t