【正文】 asoci ated wi th i t. Obj ect s li ke fl ags and crosses can f uncti on symbol ical 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 emai n sli ght ly myst er ious. In Joseph Cor nar d’s Heart of Darknes , a st eam shi p pany t hat hi r es m en t o wor k i n Congo m ai nt ai ns i n i t s wai t i ng r oom t wo 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 a l 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 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。 they point, t hey hi nt, or, as Henry James put i t, t hey cast l ong shadows. Symboli sm The t er m symbol ism r efer s 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 shor t f ict ion and pensate f or it s bri ef ness i n space. 2. There are two broad t ypes of l it erary sym bols Symbol is gener al y acknowl edged to be one of t he most f requent ly em pl oyed devices in poet ry. In works of fi ction it is no les f r equent and no l es i mport ant . The fact i s that, when a r eader r eads a wor k of fi ction, his f ocus i s mostl y cast upon the plot , t he char act er , and the l anguage used, so t hat t he symbol s ar e automati cal ly backgrounded on t he reader’ s par t. But in some novels and stor ies, t he sym bol ism looms so lar ge that the r eader wil l fail t o get a pr ehensive under st andi ng of the wor k wi thout paying speci al at tenti on to t he symbol s. The Scarlet Let ter by Nat haniel Hawt hor ne i s one of such works. The ver y ti tl e points t o a double symbol: the scarl et l et ter A wor n by Hester conveys a mul 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 the msel ves. Thom as Pynchon’ s V. cont inues al ong much the same l ine, t est ing an alphabet ical symbol . Anot her example i s Herm an Melvi l e’ s MobyDi ck, i n whi ch t he huge whit e whal e i n the t it le of t he book acqui res gr eat er m eaning t han the l it er al di ctionary def ini ti on of an aquati c mammal . I t also suggest s mor e than t he devil , to whom som e 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 natur e and the whol e uni ver se. Li terar y sym bol s are of t wo broad types: one t ype includes those em bodyi ng universal suggest ions of meani ng. Fl owi ng wat er suggests t im e and et ernit y, a journey i nt o t he underwor ld and r etur n fr om i t is i nterpr eted as a spi ri tual exper ience or a dar k night of t he soul , and a ki nd of redempti ve odyssey. Such symbols ar e used wi dely ( and som et imes unconsciously) in west er n l iter ature. The ot her t ype of symbol secures i ts suggesti venes not f rom qual it ies inherent in i tself but fr om t he way in which i t is used in a gi ven work, in a special cont ext . Thus, in MobyDi ck the voyage, the l and, and the ocean ar e objects pr egnant wi t h meani ngs that seem al most i ndependent of the author’ s use of t hem in the stor y。 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。 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