characterization, including the physical description of the character, the words or the dialogue, the character‟s actions.
Karen Bernardo wrote at storybites.com: What does characterization do for a story? In a nutshell, it allows us to
empathize with the protagonist and secondary characters, and thus feel that what is happening to these people in the story is vicariously happening to
us; and it also gives us a sense of verisimilitude, or the semblance of living reality. An important part of characterization is dialogue for it is both
spoken and inward dialogue that affords us to the opportunity to see into the characters hearts and examines their motivation. In the best of stories,
it is actually characterization that moves the story along, because a compelling character in a difficult situation creates his own plot.
Characterization is one of the most difficult aspects of creative writing to master, because authors tend to naturally fall into the fatal trap of creating
two-dimensional, cardboard characters. storybites.com, 2011
2. Theory of Symbol
A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level called as a symbol. An object, a setting, or even a character can
represent another more general idea.
Deeper still, people form a great part of how they talk to themselves, that is, how they think, process and summarize their ideas and experiences. Symbol
means what the author wants the people to feel or know as a reader by including a key phrase. A symbol is the use of a concrete object to represent an abstract idea.
A symbol may appear in a work of literature in a number of different ways to suggest a number of different things. Most commonly, a symbol will present itself
in the form of a word, a figure of speech, an event, the total action, or a character.
H.L. Yelland, S.C. Jones and K.S.W. Easton in their book A Handbook of Literary Terms, explained that symbol is a thing that represents something else. It
can be in form of object, idea, etc. Symbolism in literature is the use of expressions which represent or recall certain ideas. A concrete symbol is found to
be a convenient substitute for ideas, particularly abstraction. In general terms, symbol is anything that stands for something else. For
examples; flags, which symbolize a nation; the cross is a symbol for Christianity; Uncle Sam a symbol for the United States. In literature, a symbol is expected to
have significance. Keats starts his ode with a real nightingale, but quickly it becomes a symbol, standing for a life of pure, unmixed joy; then before the end of
the poem it becomes only a bird again. academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu, 2012 Symbol is a person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of
additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance. Symbols are educational devices for evoking complex ideas without having to
resort to painstaking explanations that would make a story more like an essay than an experience. Conventional symbols have meanings that are widely recognized
by a society or culture. Some conventional symbols are the Christian cross, the Star of David, a swastika, or a nation‟s flag. Writers use conventional symbols to
reinforce meanings. Kate Chopin, for example, emphasizes the spring setting in The Story of an Hour as a way of suggesting the renewed sense of life that Mrs.
Mallard feels when she thinks herself free from her husband. A literary or contextual symbol can be a setting, character, action, object, name, or anything
else in a work that maintains its literal significance while suggesting other
meanings. Such symbols go beyond conventional symbols; they gain their symbolic meaning within the context of a specific story. For example, the white
whale in Melville‟s Moby-Dick takes on multiple symbolic meanings in the work, but these meanings do not automatically carry over into other stories about
whales. The meanings sug gested by Melville‟s whale are specific to that text;
therefore, it becomes a contextual symbol. Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician turned philosopher put forth this
thought in his lecture, Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect, and who can disagree. Symbolism has seeped into the arts in such a way that it has become an integral
part of most literary works and even general communication. A mere sight of a skull and crossbones figure and you know that there is something that you are
being warned against. Roses and images of hearts have become synonymous with love. Different colors have come to symbolize different emotions, for example
purple for royalty, green for envy and red for jealousy. But before symbolism penetrated everyday language the way it has, it became a mainstay in the literary
world. Symbolism has been a writing method of choice for many authors and writers due to the allowance of subtlety that this literary device enables you with.
According to etymology, symbol literally means something that has been put together. The source of the word is the Greek word sumballein, which refers
to the idea of putting things together to contrast them and ultimately became a word that was used for compare. From the word symbol came the concept of
symbolism where one object is used to refer to something else. So, when an author or a poet uses one object to refer to a completely different idea, then he or
she is employing symbolism. Symbolism is used in literature to give to the literary work meaning that goes beyond what is evident to the reader. Symbolism helps in
giving the piece of writing feeling and mood without the writer having to actually spell out the same. By giving certain things human like characteristics and also
defining them with certain qualities, the writer can manage to give the novel another level that may refer to things that are completely alien from what is
mentioned in the piece of writing.
In literature, symbolism is an important device for writers. Literary symbols extend meaning beyond the prosaic representation of realities afforded by
literal description or extracted through analysis and exposition. According to Barton and Hudson, a literary symbol designates an object or a process that not
only serves as an image itself but also refers to a concept or abstract idea that is important to the theme of a work. Harmon notes that there are two broad types of
symbol. First, there are symbols that carry a universal meaning. In this case, a sunrise may represent a new beginning or a stream the passage of time. With the
second type, an object or process is invested with a particular meaning by an author Barton and Hudson, 1997: 491-493.
Frye, Baker, and Perkins also distinguish between different kinds of symbols, but they identify three types. First, there are natural symbols that present
things not for themselves, but for the ideas people commonly associate with them. Examples are a star to represent hope, a mountain to represent a barrier, or a sun
set to represent an ending.
Second, there are conventional symbols. These present things for the meanings people within a particular group have agreed to give them. For example,
a national flag may represent patriotism and a badge civil authority. The third kind are literary and are sometimes built upon natural or conventional symbols, adding
meanings appropriate primarily with the work at hand, and like the symbols with invested meaning which Harmon identifies, these symbols may sometimes create
meanings within a work for things that have no natural or conventional meaning outside it”. Frye, Baker, and Perkins, 1985: 452-453.
There are several ways to recognize symbolism in literature. One is the frequency an object or character is mentioned in a piece of literature--if it is
mentioned often, it is probably important. Another way to find a symbol is to look at how much detail is used in describing an object. These two methods give clues
that the writer wants the readers to infer something about a particular object. According to most definitions, a symbol is an objectpersonidea that represents
another idea through association or resemblance. When reading, the reader should pay attention to any items, locations, or people that are described with extended
details. The author is using these descriptions as a sign. If the author repeats the object or idea, then there is significance to it.
C. Theoretical Framework
