Symbolism Essay, Research Paper
: I have never understood the purpose of digging about for symbolism in and
author’s work, and comparing the symbolism in 2
authors’ works seems ven more of an exercise in academic futility. Perhaps
this is a neurological flaw, as I am hardwired more
toward logical pursuits: words are logical symbols for objects, emotions,
events, etc. Comparison of the symbolism in two
disparate works or two authors seemed at best a logical fallacy, and at worst
an invasive and unprofessional psychological case
study of what goes on in a writer’s head.
: I don’t mean to sound like a “wiseass.” One professor of mine in colloge
almost succeeded in killing any love I had for
literature–and short-stories in particular–by pointing out ad nauseum every
“symbol.” I remeber seething as he stood in front of
the class dissecting Flannery O’Connor: Her is a guy who probably hadn’t left
Brooklyn until he entered Harvard, and had spent
most of his life in
know anything about the life of a 40-something,
intelligent, articulate woman who lived in the South; where women were
traditionally depended on the men with whom they
were affiliated for protection and their identities; where a woman’s opinion
on politics or social issues was insignificant? I could
not see how he possibly arrived at his conclusions–which I’ve forgotten, or
blocked.
: At the risk of branding my self as a plebian from the cultural wasteland, I
missed the point of searching for symbolism. Is there
a point–other than assigning a grade–to parsing a writer’s words for
symbolism? And assuming there is, who’s to say that the
symbolism percieved by any one doctoral candidate is even valid if there’s no
corroboration from the writer about what was
actually going on in his mind at a given point in a story. If you dwell on
such things long enough don’t you risk seeing things that
just aren’t there?