Symbolism

Symbolism is an essential part to any literary work, it not only gives the literary work more depth but it also makes the work more interesting. With symbolism, a bird is no longer a bird and water is no longer just water. With symbolism, a bird can signify freedom, beauty, grace, death, or ugliness. Water represents life, continuity, purity, sadness, or taint. A bird and water can signify both very positive as well as negative things depending on what kind of bird and what kind of water. For example, a white dove can represent freedom and beauty due to it clean, white coat and its graceful flight while a crow, on the other hand also a bird, might be an image for death and ugliness due to its dark feathers and its traditional link to witches and magic. Symbolism gives more meaning to an objective thing. In William Carlos Williams’ "The Red Wheelbarrow," line 4-5 reads:
"a red wheel
barrow"
The poem seems simple enough at first, too simple to decipher anything out of the eight lines but with deeper investigation, many hidden meaning are discovered. The "red wheel/barrow" literally means a red single-wheeled vehicle used to push things around in, but symbolically the "red" represents blood, "wheel" represents life, and "barrow" (defined as the large mound of earth or stones upon a grave) represents death. From the simple lines "a red wheel/barrow" comes the meaning: "a dying life."
Symbolism makes things more important and interesting, its hidden meaning makes readers search and analyze beyond the obvious. Not only that, symbolism can provide open interpretation for readers. One thing can symbolize many other different things and it can hold different meanings and values for different people. It all depends upon the reader's mind of thought, experiences, and knowledge of the history behind the literary work. That is what makes this literary device so popular: it allows a piece of literary work to be adapted for all audiences from all walks of life.