How do you write about symbols in literature?

This guide shows how to argue a symbolic reading from evidence.

How do you write about symbols in literature?

Build your reading from how the writer uses an object or image in the text. Do not decode it from a memorised list. A symbol is something concrete, such as an object, place or natural image, that comes to stand for an idea or feeling.

That meaning is created in the text. The same object can mean opposite things in two different books. Writing about symbols is an argument, not a matter of memory.

Why can’t you look up a symbol’s meaning?

Students are sometimes told that water means life or darkness means death. But a writer may use darkness for comfort or water for danger. A fixed list will lead you to misread.

What a symbol means depends on the words and feelings the writer places around it. Say “in this text, the writer surrounds this object with these details, so it suggests X”. That makes your reading convincing.

How do you spot a symbol?

Look for two signs. The first is repetition: an image that keeps returning gathers meaning. The second is weight: the writer spends more time on something than the plot needs.

Here is a line we wrote:

He wound the broken watch each morning, though it had not moved in years.

The watch is useless, yet he winds it every day. This pointless routine gives it weight. A man caring for time that has stopped suggests someone holding on to the past.

That reading comes from “broken”, “wound each morning” and “not moved in years”. Our guide to analysing imagery helps you read details like these.

How do you link a symbol to theme?

A symbol matters because it carries an idea the whole text explores. The broken watch links to a theme of being stuck in the past. Our guide to writing about a theme shows how to make this link.

• Identify the object and the evidence that it carries extra meaning.
• Build the meaning from the words and moments around it.
• Use careful language where the text only hints.
• Link it to a theme the text develops.

How do you avoid over-reading?

Not every object is a symbol. Sometimes a window is just a window. Ask what would change if the object meant nothing beyond itself.

If the whole passage changes, your reading probably holds. If almost nothing changes, spend your time elsewhere. Our glossary explains symbolism and related terms.

How do our teachers teach symbolism?

In our Literature in English tuition, the teacher helps the student separate real symbols from ordinary details. Together they build a symbol’s meaning from the words around it and phrase it carefully. They also cut readings the text cannot support.

Set texts differ by board, so we teach from the current Literature syllabus.

If your child decodes symbols from a list instead of the text, book a paid one-hour trial class. The teacher will show how to build a reading from evidence.

Next, visit our skills guides to turn the idea into a habit. Our Literature in English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.