【正文】 se beyond it—usual y an i dea convent ional l y asoci at ed wi th i t. Obj ect s li ke fl ags and cr osses can f uncti on sym bol i cal y。, but an island of r ef uge fr om sleepless ni ght, chaos, lonel iness, old age, the meaninglessness of l if e, and i mpendi ng deat h. I n some novel s and st ori es, som e char act er s are symboli c. Such char act ers usual ly appear br iefl y and r em ai n sli ght ly m yst er ious. In Joseph Cor nar d’s H eart of Darknes, a steamshi p pany that hi res m en t o wor k i n Congo maintai ns in i ts wai ti ng room two wom en who knit black wool—t hey symboli ze the classi cal Fates. Such a character is seen as a por tr ait r at her t han as a per son, at least port rait l ike. Faul kner ’s Miss Emi ly, t wice appear s at a wi ndow of her houses “l(fā) ike t he car ven t orso of an idol in the niche.” 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。 its syll abl es, 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。 t hey poi nt , they hint , or , as Henr y James put it , they cast long shadows. Symbolism The ter m symboli sm r ef ers t o the use of symbol s, or t o a set of rel at ed sym bol s, whi ch is one of the devices that enr ich short f icti on and pensat e for i ts br iefness in space. 2. There are t wo broad types of li terary symbol s Sym bol i s gener al ly acknowl edged t o be one of the m ost fr equentl y empl oyed devices in poetr y. I n wor ks of f ict ion i t i s no l ess f requent and no less im por tant. The f act is that, when a r eader reads a work of f ict ion, hi s focus is m ost ly cast upon t he pl ot, the character , and t he language used, so that the symbols are aut om atical y backgr ounded on the r eader’s part . But i n some novel s and st ori es, the symboli sm l oom s so l arge t hat t he reader wi l f ai l to get a prehensi ve understanding of t he work wit hout payi ng special at ent ion t o the symbols. The Scarl et Let er by Nathaniel Hawthorne i s one of such wor ks. The ver y t it le point s to a double symbol : t he scar let let er A worn by Hest er conveys a mult iple of senses whi ch di f er gr eatly fr om what it l it er al y stands for, and t he wor k event ualy develops int o a t est and cr i tique of symbol s themselves. Thomas Pynchon’ s V. cont i nues along much t he same l ine, testing an al phabeti cal sym bol . Anot her example is Her man Mel vi l e’s MobyDi ck, in whi ch the huge whit e whale i n t he ti le of t he book acquir es gr eat er meani ng than the l it eral dicti onar y defi ni ti on of an aquati c mamm al . It also suggests m or e t han t he devi l, to whom some of the character s li ken i t. The huge whale, as t he st ory unf olds, es t o im pl y an ampli tude of meanings: among t hem the f orces of nat ure and t he whol e universe. Li ter ar y symbols ar e of t wo broad t ypes: one type i ncl udes t hose embodyi ng universal suggest ions of meaning. Fl owing wat er suggest s ti me and eterni ty, a journey i nto t he under worl d and retur n f rom it i s inter pr eted as a spir it ual exper ience or a dar k night of the soul , and a kind of redempti ve odyssey. Such symbol s ar e used widely (and som et im es unconsciously) in west er n l it er atur e. The ot her t ype of sym bol secur es i ts suggesti veness not f rom qual it ies inherent in itself but fr om t he way i n which i t is used in a gi ven work, in a special cont ext . Thus, in MobyDi ck the voyage, t he l and, and the ocean ar e obj ect 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 hi nts t hat some sad, passionate spir it i s br ooding as it wat ches the passi ng procesion of humanit y. Such an object i s a symbol: in li terat ur e, a symbol is a thing t ha t r efer s or suggests m ore t han it s lit eral meani ng. Ther e ar e quit e a l ot of symbol s that appear in or dinary lif e, for the use of sym bol i s by no means of l im it ed 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 sym bol of a count ry, and the cross is t he sym bol of t he Chr ist ian r el igi on. These ar e symbol s adopt ed by a whole soci ety and ar e recogni zed by al l member s 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 t he other t ypes. General ly speaki ng, a l it er ary symbol does not have a m on social acceptance, as does t he fl ag。 for instance, t he ways sentences ar e connected. 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 actional, soci al, insti tut ional , cul tur al , and hi st ori cal sit uat ion i n wh