parallel or symbol
Beginning literature students often write sentences like this: “He usesthe rose as a parallel for her beauty” when they mean “a symbol of herbeauty.” If you are taking a literature class, it’s good to master thedistinctions between several related terms relating to symbolism. Aneagle clutching a bundle of arrows and an olive branch is a symbol ofthe US government in war and peace.Students often misuse the word “analogy” in the same way. An analogy hasto be specifically spelled out by the writer, not simply referred to:“My mother’s attempts to find her keys in the morning were like earlyexpeditions to the South Pole: prolonged and mostly futile.”A metaphor is a kind of symbolism common in literature. When Shakespearewrites “That time of year thou mayst in me behold/When yellow leaves, ornone, or few, do hang/Upon those boughs which shake against the cold” heis comparing his aging self to a tree in late autumn, perhaps evenspecifically suggesting that he is going bald by referring to the treeshedding its leaves
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