“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges” (Gene Wolfe, Shadow and Claw) Symbols are offend used to represent society within literature. Using three different texts, each one containing symbols that most people would see. The texts are ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘Night Calls’, and ‘Are Close Friends better?’ Each one has a symbol that represent something different, for example a mere wall can be called a symbol.
The wall in ‘Once Upon a Time’ is the symbol. The wall represents the family’s isolation to the outside world in the story. In the story it reads “Then the man and his wife burst wildly into the garden and for some reason (the cat, probably) the alarm set up wailing against the screams while the bleeding mass of the little boy was hacked out of the security coil with saws, wire cutters, chopper, and they carried it-the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid, and the weeping gardener-into the house.” The wall that hurt the little boy was the parent’s faults. Within society, people can also create walls, invisible walls to keep people out of their lives’ so they won’t get hurt. Yet when they need someone, anyone to help them
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The bird in ‘Night Calls’ shows the deceased mother’s memories that shouldn't be forgotten. The belief that the bird means the mother’s memories because within the story it states….”As for my father, it made no sense for him to remain, grieving, in a place so closely associated with his wife. My Father was on the verge of resigning as warden of the small sanctuary when park officials telephoned about the bird.” The father was much as he wanted to leave the sanctuary, he couldn't. Even though it’s hard to bear with the loss of a loved one we shouldn't run away. Facing the problem would help even in the slightest. Grieving over someone’s dead is not a good reason to shut out