The Purpose of Symbolism Essay Example

The key to making a great and exciting story, is including literary devices in your story. A literary device is something that an author intentionally includes in their works. They’re many literary devices such as symbolism, imagery, repetition, and much more. Authors use literary devices to influence a reader’s perspective.

Authors use symbolism to influence the reader’s perspective about a civilized society. From the novel, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, Ralph and Piggy discover a shell on the beach. The shell is later used to bring all the boys back together. The quote “ We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us -” shows that the shell is used to govern the boys. In other words, law and order because later on in the story no one is allowed to speak unless they hold the conch. When the conch is broken, the boys start to lose control and split up. The author uses symbolism in this case to show how the conch controls and governs the boys.

Another example from the story “ Lord of the Flies” is the signal fire which is also a symbol. The fire is a symbol of hope of the boys to return to civilization. When the fire is going, they hope to get attention of a ship or an aircraft who will hopefully take them back. The quote “ If a ship comes near the island. They may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” represents how they want to get back to civilization. The author uses symbolism to show ow desperate the boys are to get back to civilization and leave the island.

Authors also use repetition in their stories to influence the reader’s perspective. In the poem, “ IF” by Rudyard Kipling, 1899, talks about the conditions of manhood which are quite high standards , but is done through wisdom. Throughout the poem, Kipling repeats the phrase “if’ many times and is followed along by a command. For example, “ If you can dream… If you can think” basically reminds the reader that if you do as the poem says, you will better yourself. Kipling uses repetition to make the idea of things you can do to better yourself and be more clearer and more memorable.

Authors use literary devices such as symbolism, repetition, and much more to influence the reader’s perspective. By including these devices in stories, it makes the story more appealing and best of all more memorable. Therefore, influences the reader’s perspective and worldview after reading a story.