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Diction And Symbolism In Gaston By William Saroyan

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In the short story “Gaston” by William Saroyan, seeing a torn family bond over peaches; through the meal, gaining an important look on who they are as people; this story uses diction and symbolism to convey everyone fears rejection. The author, William Saroyan, uses the literary element, diction, to convey the theme. He does this by wording certain sentences differently to transmit a feeling or meaning to the words. An example would be: “Yes. I mean, no. He just doesn’t holler when he sees a bug crawling out of a peach seed or anything…” (Saroyan 4). This shows the girl is conflicted on who she wants approval from, if she says yes, he’s crazy, she gets approval by her mother. If she says no, and defends her father for his quirks, she gets approval from her father. In this case, she gains approval from her father; But soon after you see that she also seeks her mother’s approval more. “But it is …show more content…

He does this by inserting metaphors for life, and showing a deeper meaning to the words he is putting down, other than what’s on the surface. An example of this would be: “She cried a little, but only inside, because long ago she had decided she didn’t like crying because if you ever started to cry it seemed as if there was so much to cry about you almost couldn’t stop…” (Saroyan 4). This symbolizes that the girl has probably been hurt by her mother before. She wants her mother’s approval desperately that she’ll get herself hurt just for a little bit of acceptance. Another example is when she finally informs her father of her departure and her father simply says “Oh.” (Saroyan 4) but you can feel the pain in his voice just reading it. It symbolizes that the father treasures her, wants her to stay with him, but the disappointment hits him hard. The girl wanted her mother’s approval so she let her father down in the process; you can tell she is no longer open with him, more closed

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