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Giants In The Earth Symbolism

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Symbolism is the use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as representative of a higher and more complex significance. Many authors use symbolism within their writing to help develop the meaning of their story; Ole Edvart Rölvaag is no exception in his novel, Giants in the Earth. Examples of symbols include Beret’s chest/trunk, trolls, the family's journey westward, the Indian gravestone, and the birth of Peder Victorious. All of these items have two meanings. One meaning is a general representation, and the other shows a more complex knowledge of what the object or event means. A couple symbols represent Norway. The first example is Beret’s chest/trunk from home. This was a part of the luggage that was carried from their home in Norway to the plains of South Dakota. The general meaning of it is a reminder of home and a family antique. However, this trunk symbolizes the idea of the death of Beret. She cleared it out so that she could lie in it when she died. The chest was one last memory of home and she wanted to die at home. The second example was that …show more content…

Next, is the journey westward. The general meaning of the journey is moving to new land and starting a new life. It symbolizes all the settlers around the world coming to America, and it shows people always wanting to obtain more. Additionally, the Indian graves are also symbols in the novel. When the children first find them, they don’t know what they are; it isn’t until later when they discover that Indians travel through their land, that they understand their true meaning. The graves represent the idea that land can never truly be owned by one person. Per Hansa claims the land, but the Irish had staked the land first and the Indians used the land on their route, so the true ownership of the land is in question. The graves also symbolize the reality of death and hardships that occur on the

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Primarily, copious instances of symbolism are apparent across the passage. Capote manipulates these metaphoric emblems to represent the perpetual tragedy and how it still evokes significant somber today surrounding the subject of death. A notable symbol in the book is the ambulance’s reckless blemishing of the dead family’s front lawn following the slaughter and the tire tracks still subsisting long after, “When the Sheriff summoned ambulances… the ambulances had driven across the grass straight to the front door, and the tire tracks were still visible” (Capote 206). The unheeding destruction of the grass by the ambulance symbolizes the initial collapse of the Clutter family, and the late existence of the lingering tracks is an endless reminder of the sorrow that the town of Holcomb experienced after losing one of their own. The intuitive rhetorical decision to allow the tire tracks to persist thereafter amplifies the negative connotation on death; implying that further death, in the proposed form of the

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From the same quote there is another symbol, his house and the barn. In other words, the house is his safe haven where he can be himself and the barn is a place where he can work with his brother and dad as if he is not in hiding. With the government replacing the woods with houses for barons(the rich) and taking a part

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The old house symbolizes allurement. On the off chance that you see the highway that the family is driving on as the true path of life, at that point when the grandmother informs the children regarding the old plantation house with the mystery treasure, she’s really enticing them. The house is a compulsion to her too. The dirt road symbolizes when the family turns off the expressway, symbolizing the correct way of life, onto the dirt road that should prompt the old plantation house, it symbolizes that the family accidently went down a wrong and sinful path. Correspondingly, the wrong path, albeit enticing and alluring, is more hazardous and difficult to travel than one

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Symbolism uses symbols to represent ideas or qualities, such as loss, grief, or pain. This idea is of utmost importance because, in the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, two symbols show the suffering of Billie Jo and Daddy. Hence, the author uses symbolism to explain the loss in Billie Jo’s and Daddy’s lives, using the gaping hole that daddy digs and the missing cranberry sauce. Primarily, Billie Jo’s symbol for suffering loss was the cranberry sauce, as it represents her loss of her mother.

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One more way that Jackson uses symbolism in the story to give something a deeper meaning is the black box that the citizens of the town use for their ceremony. The box that they used for the ceremony “grew shabbier each year: by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained.”(18) This representation of the box is a great use of symbolism. When the people of the town had a clear understanding of the reason behind their tradition the box was new. Over time the tradition lost its true meaning, and this is represented symbolically through the deterioration of the box. The symbolism used throughout the story helps exemplify the idea that blind obedience itself is the monster behind the tradition that the people of the town

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