(Universal Symbols)

something

that means more than what it is

object,

person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well

 Zero

the indivisible unit Buddhist void symbolic of the eternal cycle Unity individual importance the sun = # 1 as a symbol of life and wholeness. duality; separation; conflict dichotomy of sun and moon

One

Two

male and female life and death good vs. evil

 Three unity

of the trinity

three fates, spinning the threads birth/childhood old age/death middle age Christian theology: Holy Trinity FatherSon--Holy Ghost

Four
order

and symmetry four cardinal points: four elements : air, water, earth, & fire four quarters of the moon = birth, development, maturity, & death

 Five

man: (like da Vincis Vitruvian Man) the human microcosm or natural man equals two arms, two legs, and a head five fingers, toes, and senses

Six
harmony;

balance (two 3s) love, beauty, romance, harmony, balance between male and female principles

 Seven:

entirety (7 Deadly Sins) Biblical creation 7 visible planets (before the discovery of Uranus, Neptune, and the now-non-planet-Pluto) In alchemy, each of the 7 planets = a metal:

sun = gold moon = silver Mercury = quicksilver Venus = copper Mars = iron Jupiter = tin Saturn = lead

 Eight

universal order (two 4s) an infinity symbol worlds of the conscious, unconscious, & the loop which flows back & forth between them 8 spokes of the ancient wheel held the center and outer rim together

Christian

baptismal fonts octagonal 8 = rebirth through baptism in sacred water

 Nine

= Harmony

divine perfection (three 3s) in numerology, 9 = the end of a 9-year cycle

In biology, 9 = 9-month gestation cycle

Dantes Divine Comedy: 9 circles of hell reflect 9 circles of heaven The 9 muses of Greek mythology

Ten

= spiritual achievement

solidarity among creatures & things linked by the laws of nature

reappearance of the Monad from zero, indicating the beginning of a new cycle at a higher level of awareness

 Eleven

= a master number:

the eleventh hour time for church

11th

sign of the zodiac = Aquarius, the water bearer Positively = inventor, originator, & pioneer Negatively = conformity to herd, tribe, or group Promethean attitude: courage necessary to go forth as a pioneer

 Twelve

= universal fulfillment

four points of the compass (earth) times the Trinity (heaven) circle of wholeness: 12 = # of the zodiac months of the year original tribes of Israel gods of Olympia

Thirteen

= death

Unlucky (originating with Judas, Jesus, & the twelve disciples) 13th book of Revelation has as its theme the Anti-Christ 13th card in the tarot deck is Death

 Forty spiritual

order (4 x 10) often used Biblically

colors
Whitepurity Grayambiguity Blueserenity Purpleroyalty Greennature;

new

life Reddanger, energy, Yellowhappiness; decay, disease passion Blackevil, death

Applefertility; temptation Grapesabundance Pineapplefertility Peachmarriage Cherryimmortality Figfertility Plumindependence Poppysleep Lilypurity Roselove Daisyinnocence

Cypressdeath Oakstrength Olivepeace Palmprotection Willowforsaken love Cedarincorruptible Yewresurrection Pine coneimmortality Aspenlamentation Acornpotential

Dogloyalty Catmalevolence Cowmotherhood Bullfertility Pigunclean; greed Donkeystupidity Ramvirility Sheepblindness; stupidity Snakesatanic Crocodile/Alligatordeath Turtlecarries its world; wise; perseverance FishJesus Seahorsegood luck Whalepower Shellgood luck Conch shellpower of sound Snailrenewal; slowness Cock (Rooster)morning; fire; virility Peacockroyalty Ostrichstupidity Cuckooadultery; spring Dovepeace Swangrace Storkgood luck Spiderlife; fate Butterflychange; rebirth Antindustriousness

 Circle;

wheelcycle of life; never-ending

Triangletrinity

Crownroyalty; nobility

Stardivine

presence

Sunhappiness; light; masculine in darkness; feminine; cyclical

Moonlight

Rainlife; just and fair: falls on good & evil alike Plot device: cleanses characters; forces them together; restorative precipitation; removes stains Fall into mud = more stained than before Cloudsmist; concealment; Fogconfusion; miasma; murky Rainbowpeace; harmony; promise Snow: clean/stark; severe/ warm ; playful/suffocating inhospitable/inviting Springbirth; life; : renewal, hope, new awakenings Summergrowth; ripening Fallmaturity Winterdeath Elementsearth, air, fire, water

recurrent device, image, object, phrase, word, incident, situation, or action used to unify a work Certain motifs occur frequently repeated in many works

e.g.: hero saving the damsel in distress

Leitmotif: motif specific to a particular work

Big

Brother in 1984

Phrase Catch 22 from the Joseph Heller novel of the same name

 an

original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies 1. Situations: Initiationan individual understands his/her responsibility; often a rite of passage into adulthood (e.g.: Huckleberry Finn, King Arthur) Transcendencesometimes the initiate undergoes an ordeal and assumes a new role as an adult. (e.g.: Stephen Dedalus in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)

Taskan extraordinary feat that must be accomplished to save the day. (e.g.: Arthur pulls the sword from the stone to become king of England).

 Questthe

search for someone or something needed to save the day (e.g.: the Holy Grail) Journeythe difficulties that the hero must undergo to accomplish the task, usually involving travel (e.g.: The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey) Ritualan official ceremony; may be part of the initiation or rite of passage (e.g.: weddings, graduation)
Fallloss of innocence or a fall from grace which often includes expulsion from paradise (e.g.: Adam and Eve) Deathlike in the cycles of nature, an actual or spiritual death, equated with evening and the seasons of fall and winter Rebirthagain like nature, renewal, equated with morning and the seasons of spring and summer

 Communionwhenever

characters eat

or drink together
Breaking bread together =

act of sharing and peace Meal scenes show how characters are/arent getting along Meals: show the bonds between characters Failed meal = bad sign
Interlopers : cause other characters to lose their appetite Meal sharers = loyalty, kinship, generosity

 Flightone

of the temptations of Christ

In general, flight = freedom (from specific circumstances) Or, = escape (from general burdens tying us down) Also, = spirituality In poetry: freedom of birds contrasts w/earthbound cares & woes of humans Flight = the soul taking wing (spirits cant rise when weighed down by guilt)
Rebirthagain

like nature, renewal, equated with morning and the seasons of spring and summer

 Baptismcharacters

reborn through medium of water; characters whose old identity stays in water

River = shifting nature of time

All

things are caught up in the rivers flow (somewhere else now)

Literary drowning swept away in flood Near-drowning = baptism: character must be ready to receive it

Symbolic

of Christ Heraclitus: One cannot step into the same river twice (500 B.C.)

rebirth: reborn in identity as follower

 Sacred

marriagethe joiningoften of oppositeswhich restores peace (e.g.: Beauty and the Beast)

Battle between good and evilwe want good to win (e.g.: cartoons, many movies, Paradise Lost) Natural world opposed to mechanical world usually nature is good; technology, evil (e.g.: Brave New World, Walden) Innate wisdom vs. educated stupiditysome characters, though ignorant, exhibit a natural wisdom; this is often shown in animals. Others, though educated, have no street smarts and make poor decisions (e.g.: the teacher in To Kill a Mockingbird with her tirade about Hitler and prejudice)

 Unhealable

woundmay be physical or psychological (e.g.: Captain Hooks missing limb) Magic weaponusually bestowed by a mentor to the hero (e.g.: Excalibur; light sabers in Star Wars) Supernatural interventionthe gods help (or hurt) the hero (e.g.: The Iliads Trojan War) Light vs. Darklight represents hope and illumination; dark indicates hopelessness and the unknown. Light shines from heaven to indicate goodness; characters are often drawn into evil darkness

 Sexuality: Grail Legends: Knights lance (phallic sword) Holy Grail/Chalice/Empty vessel = female sexuality Lance + Chalice = fertility Knights restore fertility Waves breaking on the beach = fulfillment Curtains blowing, Campfires, Fireworks Male symbols: Lances, Swords, Guns, Keys Female symbols: Chalices, Grails, Bowls

Heaven vs. Hellsupreme beings and mythological gods live in the skies; evil forces, including Satan, come from the underworld (e.g.: myths of Persephone and Orpheus and Eurydice; Paradise Lost) Haven vs. Wildernesshavens are places of comfort and safety (e.g.: Garden of Eden; Camelot); wilderness includes any place of danger

(e.g.: escaped slaves such as James Pennington had to go into the wilderness before they could reach safety from the Underground Railroad)

Water vs. Desertwater is a symbol of life and birth (used in baptism); deserts indicate lack of life, desolation. (e.g.: Jesus temptation by Satan in the desert; the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath must cross the desert before they get to the Promised Land of California and see the river)

 Fire

vs. Ice

fire depicts knowledge (technology) and life; ice represents ignorance (ice age) and death (e.g.: Frankensteins monster begins his life with fire (lightning) and disappears on the ice.

Cavesisolated

in barren wastelands

Unadorned, strange, uncanny Connection to our most basic, primitive elements Platos cave consciousness & perception Security & shelter Nothingness (suggests existentialism)

 Geographical

significance:

When writers send characters south, its so they can run amok Direct/raw encounters with the subconscious
Lowlands=

swamps, crowds, fog, darkness, fields, heat, life, death unpleasantness, people Highlands = snow, ice, purity, thin air, clear views, isolation, life, death

 Herousually

rises from a rather lowly birth to become a leader or king after facing many trials (e.g.: King Arthur, Jesus, Beowulf, Harry Potter, Superman) Young Person from the Provincestaken from home and returns with a new perspective (e.g.: Tarzan, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz; Alice from Alice in Wonderland) Initiatesinnocents who train for the quest (e.g.: Luke Skywalker; Aragorn from Lord of the Rings) Mentorsteachers or counselors for the initiates (e.g.: Yoda from Star Wars; Gandolf from Lord of the Rings)

 Benevolent

Guideusually an older person who gives the hero counsel (e.g.: Merlin, Obi Won Kenobi, fairy godmothers) Shamanprotector of rituals and traditions (e.g.: Rafiki in The Lion King; witch doctor) Parent-Child Conflictgenerational tension (e.g: Romeo and Lord Montague; Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader) Companionsloyal to hero at all costs (e.g.: The Fellowship in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; Robin Hoods merry men) Friendly Beasthelps hero (e.g.:Chewbacca, Toto)

 Loyal

Retainera true and loyal friend, often a servant (e.g.: Sancho Panza in Don Quixote) Trickstera wise fool, a rascal, troublemaker (e.g.: Loki in Norse mythology; Jar Jar Blinks in the Star Wars series; Touchstone in As You Like It; Brer Rabbit) Devil Figurepurely evil (e.g.: Satan, Sauron from Lord of the Rings; Grendel in Beowulf; Simon Legree in Uncle Toms Cabin) Evil Figure with Ultimately Good Heart redeems himself at the end of the story (e.g.: Darth Vader; Scrooge)

 Evil

Figure with Ultimately Good Heart redeems himself at the end of the story
(e.g.: Darth Vader; Scrooge)

Scapegoatsacrificed

animal or human who takes on the sins and punishment for others (e.g.: Jesus, Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird; Jim Casy from The Grapes of Wrath; the mother in Shirley
Jacksons The Lottery)

Outcastcharacter

banished from society (e.g.: Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Loversfate is against them

Frankensteins monster)
Star-crossed

(e.g.: Romeo and Juliet; Guinevere and Lancelot)

 Earth

motherprovides life and nourishment (e.g.: Mother Nature; Mammy in Gone with the Wind) Temptressbeautiful woman who brings the destruction of the hero (e.g.: Delilah; Helen of Troy) Platonic Idealthe woman on a pedestal who inspires the hero, but with whom the hero has no physical relationship (e.g.: ladies of the court in
whose names the knights fought; the Virgin Mary)
Unfaithful

Wifea married woman involved in illicit affair(s) (e.g.: Madame Bovary; Hester Prynne)
Damsel in Distressmust be rescued by the hero, who is often trapped when he comes to her aid (e.g.: Guinevere)

 Creaturesmonsters

who threaten the hero (e.g.: Grendel in Beowulf; Cyclops; vampires)

Fisher

Kinghero = fixer

Wounded King who keeps Holy Grail in Arthurian Legend, always wounded in the legs or groin, immovable His kingdom suffers because of his injuries His impotence affects the fertility of the land, reducing it to a barren Wasteland All he can do is fish in the river near his castle
Something in

society is broken Wastelands must be restored to fertility Rain figures prominently in fertility myth

Vampires: selfish, exploitative, refusing to respect autonomy of others Elements in Vampire Allegories: Vampires: attractive but evil

Old Figure/Vampire: represents corrupt, outworn values Violates young women Leaves his mark on them Steals their innocence/their usefulness to younger men Leaves them helpless followers in their sin

Victim: Young, virginal female: beautiful, unmarried Vampire strips away virginal females youth, energy, virtue Continuance of life force of the Old Male comes from death/destruction of young woman

Christ Figures: Any 3-4 similarities to these characteristics:

Crucified (hand/foot/side/head wounds) In agony Self-sacrificing Good with children Good with loaves, fishes, water, wine 33 years old Carpenter Humble modes of transportation (donkey, feet preferable) Walks on water

Portrayed with outstretched arms Spends time alone in the wilderness Confrontation with Devil/tempted by Satanic force Last seen in the company of thieves Creator of aphorisms and parables Buried but arose on 3rd day Disciples12 @ 1st (not all devoted) Very forgiving Arrives to redeem unworthy world Unmarried, preferably celibate Inspires hope/performs miracles

AP Central. org.

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper-Collins, 2003. Google Images. http://images.google.com/images Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki