Questions to ask when analyzing a writer's use of imagery

• What does the writer want the reader to see, hear, taste, feel and smell?

• What revealing details bring the place, the people or the situation to life? Does the writer use details that people would usually overlook?

• Which are the most striking and revealing images? Which images tend to linger on in our minds? Are they important to the overall meaning of the work?

• Does the work appeal to one sense in a particular or to all the senses?

• What emotions or attitudes do the images arouse in the reader?

3. Symbols (Delaney, d.)

A symbol is an example of what is called the transference of meaning. Writers take a concrete item – an object, a colour, a person, a place – and attribute a deeper meaning to it. A symbol may be a detail, an object, a character or an incident. It exists first as something literal and concrete in the work, but it also has the capacity to evoke in the mind of the reader a range of invisible and abstract associations. By definition symbols are open-ended. A given symbol will evoke different responses in different readers. There is, however, an acceptable rage of possible readings and any interpretation of a symbol must be confirmed by the rest of the work.

The identification and understanding of symbols demands awareness and intelligence of the reader. It involves the reader directly in the creative process, asking him to add his own intellectual and emotional responses. Through this collaboration the work is enriched and enlarged.

Cultural and shared symbols

Many symbolic associations are widely recognized and accepted: the dawn with hope, the serpent with evil, the colour white with innocence, light with knowledge, dark with ignorance. Writers often make use of these cultural or shared symbols. Readers must not, however, automatically apply conventional meanings to these symbols. Sometimes writers will enlarge or narrow the meaning of a cultural symbol. The reader must first carefully examine how the symbol is used in the text before assigning meaning.

Literary or personal symbols

Authors also use their own original symbols. Personal or literary symbols do not have pre-established associations: the meaning that is attached t them emerges fropm the context of the work in which they occur. A particular landscape or certain atmospheric condition may become associated with a character's emotional state. A colour or an object may take on a secondary meaning. A recurring gesture or a character may be given symbolic meaning.

Guidelines for identifying and understanding symbols

When does an object, character or action cease to be just part of the story and begin to develop symbolic association? There is no simple answer to this question. Ultimately, the reader must develop his own awareness through receptive and responsive reading. There are, however, some broad guidelines he can follow.

The principal techniques that writers use for creating symbols are:

• repetition: the reader should take note of multiple references to a particular object or the recurrence of the same gesture;

• emphasis: does the author seem to pay particular attention to some element, describe it in detail or use poetic or connotative language when referring to it?

• associations automatically made with shared symbols: the reader should try to understand if the author wishes him to make conventional associations with the symbol or if he has added his own personal significance.

While there is a risk that a reader may not identify symbols, there is also the danger that he may see symbolic importance where the writer did not intend it. 'Symbol hunting', i.e. attributing symbolic status to objects, characters or actions when there is little evidence in the text that they should be viewed as a symbol, should be avoided.