Imagery and symbolism

A detailed Summary of Imagery and symbolism

Is it possible for us to understand the central theme of a story or a poem or any other piece of writing without having images and symbols? We can find them in every piece of writing in English literature. Every author uses symbolism and imagery in their writings in order to make us understand the message that he is trying to convey through words. In other words, symbolism gives us a deeper level of meaning and stronger emotions. Freedom, love, relationship, hate, violence are few central themes represented in many different stories and poems. Idea of vivid mental pictures, or images, by the skilful use of words is what we called "imagery." I discovered the use of same image in different works representing different significance to us. Some themes are expressed by using different symbols and images. Unfairness in war among the people is a common theme that can be characterized images by the means of body parts, fire, and humans.

In the story "The Things They Carried" the author, Tim O'Brien uses the image of a human thumb to represent injustice done to the young Vietnamese boy and to the American soldiers. American soldiers were involved in a conflict in Vietnam and were experiencing sufferings without a

Apart from using images of thumb and fire to reflect injustice and anger, the author Gloria Anzaldua uses animal imagery in her poem "horse" to exemplify the theme of injustice. Gloria uses image of horse to signify the injustice, which generally associated with a very sexual and passionate image. She uses horse to reveal the cultural differences between white Americans and the Mexicans. The white teenagers tortured the horse very badly, but they did not kill him and made him suffered whole night. After the event happened white Americans never confess their mistake. She expresses injustice not only done to the horse but also shows the helpless Mexicans:

priced us, you who have removed us: at what cost?

into dust, our survivors into clowns.

What price the pits where our bones share

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Approximate Word count = 1184
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Imagery and symbolism

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