Introduction
Symbolism is among the many literary devices used by playwrights to express mystical ideas through the emblematic use of images. Fiction writers as well as poets use symbolism deliberately to ensure that the audience gets the meaning beyond their literal description of their story. In other words, playwrights describe the strategy as seeing beneath the tip of the iceberg. The literal understanding of the work forms the outer level of understanding while the symbolic meaning forms the deeper meaning of the work (Clugston, 2010, Section 2.2).
In Frost’s “A Path Not Taken”, Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” and Rhys’ “I Used to Live Here Once”, the aspect of the journey is symbolized to enable the reader strive to understand the works at a deeper level. As the paper unveils, the similarities in the use of symbolism in the in the three works is explored with the aim of understanding the effect that symbolism has on readers.
Effects of symbolism as achieved in the three literary works
The descriptions about the journey in the three works symbolize the journey of life that humans undergo. Symbolism, as used in the three masterworks, enables the readers to use their interpretation in creating a connection between their personal experiences and what they makes out of the story.
For instance, in Frost’s poem “A Path Not Taken”, the two paths symbolize the choices that a person faces in the long journey of life. Frost (1920) says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…And sorry I could not travel both” (lines 1-2) indicating the fact that however much people tend to have options in life, there is only one path that a person can follow at a time. He goes ahead to imply that once a person has chosen a particular path to follow, it is not easy to go back and follow the one he had opted against.
This clearly depicts the choices that humans make in the long journey of life in that the decision that one makes once in life may have so many adverse implications that will not allow him/her to go back to the drawing board an realize where he/she went wrong. The symbols encoded by the writer here call for the decoding of the reader in relation to the understanding that he/she has with regard to life.
Similarly, Eudora’s story, “A Worn Path”, talks of an old woman named Phoenix whose strong will and determination leads her all the way through the dark forest to her destination. Along the way, she meets challenges, which include falling into a ditch after being chased by a dog and being discouraged by her rescuer, the white young hunter to go on with her journey.
The symbolic journey that this woman undertakes is a clear reflection of the journey that a person undertakes in his/her life. There are many challenges involved and if one is not determined and does not have a clear focus, he/she may deter and too fail to accomplish the journey. Phoenix Jackson the old woman in this story says to the white hunter,” “I bound to go on my way, mister” (Welty, 2010, p.34).
This statement gives the reader a clear indication that despite the fact that she is old, she has the will power to continue with her journey. Through the symbolism given by the author throughout the story, the reader finds him/herself attaching the happenings in this story to the events surrounding their lives and trying to find meanings that appeal to their situations. Symbolism too stands out in Rhys’ narrative.
Rhys’ short story gives a symbolic description of a path across a stream where an old woman crosses going to identify where she originated. The descriptions given of the steppingstones used to cross the river give a clear depiction of Rhys’ view of life. “There was the round unsteady stone, the pointed one, the flat one in the middle…the safe stone where you could stand and look around” (Rhys, 1998, Para. 1).
The descriptions of the stones give a clear picture of the dangers and decisions involved in every step that one has to take in life. The symbols of the roads, which were once familiar to her, but seem to have changed with time, indicate the changes that people’s lives undergo with time. There seems to be something that alienates the woman in the story from her surroundings.
For instance, when she calls out the children and tells them that she once lived in that house, the children seem not to be seeing her and this creates the impression that she is in a world different from theirs’. When her eyes meet with those of the young boy, there is no change in the expressions of the young boy, which suggests that she is a spirit. The use of symbolism by the writer motivates the reader to seek meanings of the different aspects talked about in the story and relating them to their lives.
In the three works, the writers take advantage of the different meanings associated with colors to create symbols for describing the mood in the journeys involved. For instance, in the poem “The Path not Taken “by Frost, he says, “And both that morning equally lay/ in leaves no step had trodden black” (Frost, 1920, lines 16-17).
He uses the symbol of color to create the overall mood in the journey the journey that the persona is involved. Black is usually associated with bad things such as bad omen, uncertainty, evil, and so on. The poet, through the symbol of the black color, implies that a person can take up a route in life, which in this case is the decision that people take and fail to notice the signs that may predict bad luck or failure in the journey of life.
Jean Rhys employs color as symbols to create the mood of the story in the reader. The reader can easily identify the journey that the character is involved in when the mood is clearly set. The narrator says, “It was a fine day, a blue day…The only thing was that the sky had a glassy look that she didn’t remember” (Rhys, 1998, Para. 2).
This implies the optimism that the old lady portrays when going back to retrace her roots by visiting a place she once lived in. the symbol of the blue color is a clear indication that she expected to be welcomed warmly by those that she was going to find in her home. This however turns out to be wrong since there happens to be hindrances that she cannot understand about the place. The children that she finds playing cannot even recognize that she is there let alone relying to her salutations.
The new house that she finds is also painted white, which is a symbol used to express bright feelings, peace and so on. This contrasts with the disillusionment that she faces when she tries talking to the kids she find outside. This is taken in relation to the overall symbol of the journey to reflect to the expectations that a person may have when engaged in the journey to retrace his/her roots only to be disappointed by the kind of welcome he/she receives from the people that he/she finds there.
The writer in a worn path uses dark colors to describe the thickets that the old woman character Phoenix Jackson passes through in an attempt to get to the town to get medication for her sick grandchild. The dark colors used in this sense imply the challenges that lie ahead of the woman in contrast to her strong will and determination.
Despite her reading the challenges that lie ahead of her, she is still able to move on and it is her determination and the purpose she has that ensures her morale is not disturbed by the things she goes through in her journey. She sees a bright colored nickel fall from the pocket of the white hunter, which is a clear definition of the hope that lies ahead of her. This use of colors to set the mood makes the readers of the work able to clearly follow the story and have an in depth attachment with the whole story.
When taken literally, these stories seem so simple to swallow that the reader may opt to read something else instead. However, the use of symbolism in the three works evokes the sense of concern in that the reader finds interest in reading the stories to further understand and uncover the myths created using the symbols. For instance, the poem by Frost when taken literally only alludes to the persona’s journey where he encountered two paths and had to choose between the two and decide which one to follow.
Through recognizing the symbols that have been used by the poet to pass the deeper message, the reader is able to recognize that there is a deeper attachment to the story and that it can relate directly to his/her everyday life. The use of symbols in this case helps trigger the reader’s interest to pursue the poem and get the deeper message that the writer tries to pass through. In this case, the message goes beyond the seemingly simple journey through the woods by the persona.
The story “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty may seem simplistic and uninteresting if it were to be divorced with the symbolism that it bears. This is means that the story would simply be that of a tale of an old black woman trying to cross through the dangerous and dark bushes of the Mississippi to get to the town to get some medication for her ailing grandchild.
The writer instead employs symbols that make the reader try to make out a deeper meaning of the story and relate it to the happenings and events that are familiar to them and shape their understanding of things. Without the use of symbolism in a story like this one, the reader would only dismiss the story as a plain text and opt just to do something else rather than read the story that has no appeal whatsoever his/her life.
Rhys’ story “I once lived here” may seem completely uninteresting and irrelevant to a reader if there was no deeper meaning attached to it. This is with reference to the events and descriptions that shape the story. The plot of the story for instance follows a character form a river to the compound, which is so short and incomplete. When the reader is not aware of the symbolism and the intended meaning of the story, he/she may neglect the story as being so shallow and simple.
However, this is not the case for a reader who is able to identify the literary symbols that are included in the story (Dickens, 1978, p.45). Rhys uses symbolism to indicate to the reader that the story is far beyond his/her mere understanding. The author therefore invokes the reader into wanting to establish the real meaning behind the story by relating the carefully illustrated descriptions of the surroundings to the possible intended meaning of the story.
For instance, when the reader comes across, “Very fair children as Europeans, born in the West Indies so often are as if the white blood is asserting itself against all the odd…” (Rhys, 1998, Para.4), he/she is invoked into wanting to create a connection between the woman and the children and this cannot be achieved without reading between the lines.
As it is always the intention with other aspects of figures of speech, the aim of using symbolism in these stories and poem by the writers is to improve the flavor of the story through presenting something that appears as simple in a more interestingly unfamiliar way.
The three writers have succeeded in their quests to make this possible as portrayed by their works. For instance, the use of symbolism in portraying the journey of the persona in Frosts “The Path not Taken “gives the poem a far deeper understanding of the poet’s intended meaning in an interesting manner.
This is opposed to instances where poets ostensibly write in plain language, which makes the readers to lack interest in the works that they are reading. Symbolism makes the stories of Rhys and Welty interesting in that the symbolic descriptions of the journey are interesting and are addictive to the reader such that one cannot put the story down without reaching the end. In other words, the authors of these works take the advantage of the effects of symbolism to arrest the interests of the readers.
Conclusion
The use of symbolism in literature makes the works communicate the message that the writers and poets want to pass to their readers. However, it is only the effective use of such symbolism, which ensures the achievement of the goal, as demonstrated in the works of Rhys, Welty, and Frost.
The improper use of the device in writing literary works can result to the readers failing to understand the meaning that the writer intends to put across. Symbolism works together with other figures of speech to make literary works different from other forms of writing. Literary works pass specific messages intended by the writers to their target audience. Good enough, playwrights succeed upon using symbolism as a way of presenting these messages.
Reference List
Clugston, R. (2010). Journey into Literature. Web.
Dickens, F. (1978). Understanding Symbolism in Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press.
Frost, P. (1920). A Path not Taken: Tricky Poetry. London: Longman Publishers.
Rhys, J. (1998). I Used to Live Here Once: Telling Stories. New York City: W. Norton & Co.
Welty, E. (2010). A worn Path: West Indies Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.