... person and not a menace. Another major theme of the story is education. The book stresses how important it is for children to understand moral education in order to move from childhood to adulthood. Atticus is portrayed as the perfect teacher, understanding and sympathetic, while Scouts other teachers hinder her learning and ... them. Harper Lee portrays the foolishness of the structure the adults have in society through the children's confusion surrounding it. For example, Jem thinks that truth will win over this structure, when in the end it doesn't. Also, Scout doesn't understand why ...

• Word Count: 1026
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Piggy's specs are a very symbolic object. Piggy is a social outcast but his intelligence and thoughtfulness well exceed that of any of the other boys. His thoughts come to life through Ralph's image to make an ultimate leader. The specs are a symbol of man's ability to perceive and think, man's greed, and the boys" vision of civilization. Piggy is the most intelligent boy and has the clearest perception of the boys on the island. The fact that he wears glasses is a symbol of his intelligence. After he was killed, "There was no Piggy to talk sense."(216) Piggy was "a true, wise friend." (202). ...

• Word Count: 970
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... wrists and ankles, broken ankles, or devouring amputations "but fatal to the last degree of fatality; those repeated disastrous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors upon Moby Dick - (Melville, 1851, p. 172) Furthermore, Hawthorne describes Moby Dick as, "so incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst, for human blood.""(Melville, 1851, p. 174) It often seems as if some evil spirit, possibly the devil ... assault."" (Melville, 1851, p. 528) Throughout his story, Melville uses Moby Dick's aggressive and revengeful behavior to depict him as living sin. Moby Dick and Th...

• Word Count: 654
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... such as innocence, charity and prudery."" This story on the other hand, is about a loss of innocence. Throughout the story there are several references to how dark and mysterious the atmosphere is. This represents the boys' "bad character-. Most of the representations in the story have a kind of dark and ... gloomy sense. The story is about a group of adolescent boys that are looking for some kind of experience that would actually label them as "bad."" When they are finally confronted with a bad situation, are they really as bad as ... at the lake. The woods by the lake are known to b...

• Word Count: 682
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a picture book. It does not make you think and actually figure out what is happening in the story. Heart of Darkness contains many symbols throughout it that have much more meaning that they appear to have. Some of the symbols that make this story come alive are: the presence of fog, the painting that Kurtz painted of the blindfolded girl, the mysterious and ... you. " When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all around you like something solid." You never know what lies after ...

• Word Count: 923
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... the novel is packed with philosophical themes, the most prominent of them all is how and why ingenuousness is lost. Golding demonstrates that the existence of civilization and stability allows man to remain innocent, and shows that innocence is destroyed when rules are broken and when evil seeps in by using symbols and motifs such as butterflies, pigs, and Simon. In this novel ... when the sow is killed, and innocence is destroyed. Simon is another representation of innocence. He is a symbol of goodness, a search for truth, and a will to be moral. Simon has just seen the dead man in the...

• Word Count: 1127
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... were linked with evil. The setting of "Young Goodman Brown", the forest, serves as one important symbol. It was said to be "gloomy" and "frightful". This proves to be true when Goodman Brown comes to a "demonic" insanity in the middle of the forest. The forest was also described as "dark" and "enclosing". ... happy laughter suggests good whereas the scream represents evil. Again the good and evil are closely related. The bright light of the sun is brought to shadow by the cloud. This might show that the light of the truth is shadowed by the lies of heir religion. The final example that ....

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... not only bigoted and joyless, but essentially evil. (Bloom 13-14, 97, 100) The person that is affected most by the scarlet letter is Hester Prynne, for many very obvious reasons. It is a large part of her daily life, and each of her actions is watched very closely by the community. Because of her ... in explaining Hester's offense. She symbolizes the union of her two parents, outside of marriage, and is therefore labeled as a strange or evil child. However, all of her actions in the novel are innocent and devoid of blame. She is also very curious, shown by her questioning and also her cr...

• Word Count: 1366
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... children. The novel Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel meaning that its main ideas and themes are represented throughout the novel by symbols. Lord of the Flies has many themes, symbols, and motifs throughout the novel to acquire this effect. Themes are often universal ideas explored in a literary work and Lord of the Flies has its share of themes buried in ... competing impulses that exist within all human beings. When all these boys are stranded on the island after the crash, they start out civilized, moral, and discipline; as the novel progresses they move toward the wild, bru...

• Word Count: 916
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... that occur in their lives. The story is set in Medallion, Ohio, between 1919 and1965. some of the main characters include Sula peace, a social outcast that breaks all the rules; Nel Wright, a very conventional woman that fits into society; Eva Peace, Sula's grandmother and matriarch of the house; Hannah Peace, Sula's mother ; and ... theme is loss of innocence, which is demonstratedwhen Sula and Nel accidently kill chicken little. The characters also contrast each other. For example, Sula and Nel are seen as evil and good. Helene and Hannah (their mothers) can be viewed the same way. Th...

• Word Count: 1103
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... the log on the creek, which Phoenix calls "the trial,"" to the snakes that she has encountered on previous treks to Natchez (106). "A pleasure I don't see no two-headed snake coming around that tree, where it come once- (107). Snakes, of course, are one of the most widely used symbols for evil, deception, and danger. All of these are found in any given life. As ... for the question that some may have about whether or not the ... grandson lives, the answer can be found in Welty's frequent references to death and supernatural spirits. Phoenix notes that "down in the hollow was the ... ...

• Word Count: 727
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... As time had past by before the house, it had fallen apart, portraying the feelings of the people in it. All of the inhabitants in Usher's house seem to have brought all this trouble upon themselves. Also the twins, being Roderick, and Madeline have a large representation in The House of ... Usher. Roderick in a way, represents evil, and is the more twisted one; where the other one, being Madeline represents good, and "heavenly" philosophical ideas. Many things, including the evil twin, Roderick, seem to ... knew deep down, there was no way he could escape his troubles. This is why The H...

• Word Count: 608
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... ). The phrase "thou art sick" could be easily interpreted as the narrator's voice, (perhaps as reflecting on what he observed); Where as O rose, seems to refer directly to the subject of the poem. Although our first visual of human conception of a rose may be just that, a flower, one senses much deeper in this Blake ... and the worm stand as opposites in this poem, symbolically antagonistic, as portrayed by Blake. The bed of crimson joy and the dark secret love are also symbols. This seem suggestive of an embarrassment of a sexual act, or shame because she may have God whispering in her e...

• Word Count: 549
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... only because of evil acts, but out of laziness and lack of motivation. Overall, Ralph is not as forceful as Jack and he is unable to keep peace in the way that he had originally hoped. Even though these characters display major differences throughout the novel, there are times when Ralph feels ... of the cliff that separates civilization from savagery. Here, he is trying to convey the idea that even the purest members of society are often overcome by the evil seed that lies within all of us. Golding uses his characters as the main symbols to create a deeper meaning, but he uses a number o...

• Word Count: 947
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... even worse. They punish her for committing a sin even though they commit one themselves. The townspeople are guilty of hypocrisy. The worst sin that they commit is isolating Hester. She comes to a point where she cannot go out during daylight. Wearing her sin on her chest caused her to be isolated by the townspeople. They are all hypocrites for being the same people who go ... to church weekly repenting their sins. Hawthorne uses many symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses the colors red, black, and ... white to represent Hester's emotions and the emotions of those aroun...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... journey of discovery that leaves him disillusioned and miserable. Brown learns that the entire town is motivated by evil, which Hawthorne uses many written devices to portray. Hawthorne incorporates symbolism, irony and metaphors into this story, which uncover the truth of this small community, and teaches the reader that nothing ... no matter where you live, and that those who live an entirely pure life die miserable and alone. Hawthorne uses a variety of abstract and concrete symbols in this story, beginning with his wife, whose name is appropriately, Faith. This symbolizes Brown's inno...

• Word Count: 787
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his message throughout the book. He begins using a plant, then the namesake of the book, then continues on to uses two people as symbols to get his message across. Although seemingly simple, all of these symbols are extremely complex, and used in a multitude of ways. First, the rosebush outside the prison; in the first chapter, it is used as a symbol of hope, or maybe a symbol ... wild roses that grew by the prison door-, as if the bush represented her mother's only salvation from the harsh prison, or even a physical manifestation of Hester's love for her daughter. This answer to this q...

• Word Count: 777
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

BEFORE THE RAIN; BEFORE THE KNOWLEDGE We are all familiar with, or at least have heard of the story about Adam and Eve. The story about the creation of the earth. According to this story, Adam and Eve find knowledge only after Eve has eaten from the forbidden fruit. The knowledge that they acquired ... now know that one another is naked. God, the creator of Adam and Eve intended for them to live peacefully in the Garden of Eden, but since they found knowledge, and wanted to keep this knowledge, God punished them for it by allowing evils into the Garden of Eden. This evil has been with us ... ...

• Word Count: 863
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... this point in the book, her sin was dying away beside the withering leaves. This attempt by Hester to discard her sin shows that she, like a plant in the forest, is ready for new growth. Living and wild or withering and dead plant symbols help to describe the characters" states throughout the novel. The forest in The Scarlet Letter brings out a different side of ... . Nature serves as an extreme contrast to Puritan values. The sins of the main characters of the book are sins against the Puritan way of life. Because nature is a place free of any constraints, it is a safe haven for all of ...

• Word Count: 1017
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... " is shown in three ways: Symbolism of Names, Objects, and Acts. In "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Lottery", both of these short stories use symbols of names as marks of evil. In "Young Goodman Brown", Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the names Faith and Young Goodman Brown as the sign of nice, and respectable ... , sort of like a box. Through the sumbolism of the name, when she picked the black dot out of the box, we knew that it was going to happen. These types of Symbolism represent evil in a way. In these two stories, there is a lot of symbolism through acts. Two examples of types of ... "The...

• Word Count: 1021
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... the most symbolic and meaningful themes is that of blood - When we think of blood we most commonly think of injuries/pain not always true for blood serves many purposes. - Thesis statement: Blood in Macbeth is mainly used to symbolize bravery, treachery and guilt which all link together to form a dominant theme in the play. - In the beginning of the novel, blood was used ... : - The use of blood in the play serves many purposes, for it creates irony, characterization, contrast, etc. - Its main purpose is to serve as a symbol, mainly of bravery, treachery and guilt - These symbols all lik...

• Word Count: 509
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... unspeakable, and take her own life so that she would not have to feel so horrible. Macbeth, overall, uses morals to decide what the characters do and how they feel about things during the story. The symbols of good and evil reflect the moral good and bad in people. The best symbol for goodness in Macbeth is Banquo. The witches" prophecies tell that he ... will be "greater" (1.3.65) than Macbeth, but he does nothing at all to fulfill his future. He lets fate determine what his outcome will ... be, rather than kill and commit terrible sins. Even though Macbeth does some awful things thro...

• Word Count: 649
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Hyde literally poisons the pure and good Dr. Lanyon, therefore, reinforcing the theme that pure evil lies in all humanity and that its exposure is a catastrophic mistake" (8). Deep within him, Lanyon prefers to die rather than go on living in a universe that has, from his point of view, been turned ... with his cane, and carrying on like a madman. The old gentleman took a step back, and with that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. At the horror of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted" (Stevenson 60). The setting of the romantic nature of the maid ... is...

• Word Count: 2799
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... journey in Heart of Darkness covers not only thewaters? filling our physical world, but also the contradictoryocean? which exists in the heart of man and all of mankind. Through Marlow's somewhat fanatical eyes we view the enigma that is humanity, and the blurred line between light and dark. It is a ... journey is actually within himself. From the start of Marlow's tale there are a lot of symbols relating to the unchartered places of the subconscious, and the journey intended to discover them. For instance, Marlow is lead to a room by two silent women spinning black wool.?Two women, one ...

• Word Count: 881
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... about destruction and violence. One of the ironies in The Matrix is the consequences of the team's actions in the movie. The team's goal is to protect humanity and release them from the grasp of the Matrix. Morpheus tells Neo that the Matrix is using human beings as batteries and taking away ... be wrong if Cypher kills Morpheus because Morpheus freed them from a lie. Cypher immediately began naming all the things about Zion that bothered him. How he always has to listen to Morpheus and how he always has to eat unappetizing food. The interesting thing is that Trinity only defends Morpheus...

• Word Count: 867
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School