Empoword

Part Two: Text Wrestling 159 rather than what we think they should have said . In turn, we can develop a more complex, ethical, and informed understanding of a whole . Perhaps the most important part of analysis is this attention to detail. If we assume that every word the author published is intentional (in order to avoid speculation about authorial intent), then we can question the meaning and impact of each word, each combination of words, each formal feature of the text. In turn, you should pay special attention to words or forms that surprise you or confuse you: the eye-catching and the ambiguous. Symbols, Patterns, and References 59 There is no definitive “how-to” guide on text wrestling, but I often ask my students to direct their attention to three particular elements of a text during their interpretive processes. When you draw connections through the following categories, you are actively building meaning from the words on the page. 27) Symbol : A symbol, as you may already know, is an artifact (usually something concrete) that stands in for (represents) something else (often something abstract). Here are a few examples in different media: o Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign logo: the O, of course, stands in for the candidate’s last name; the red lines seem to suggest a road (implying progress), or maybe waving American flag; the blue curve represents a clear, blue sky (implying safety or wellbeing); the colors themselves are perhaps symbolic of bipartisan cooperation, or at the very least, the American color palette of red, white, and blue. o In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the titular black cat symbolizes the narrator’s descent into madness, alcoholism, and violence, and later his guilt for that descent. o The teaspoon used to hypnotize people in the film Get Out (2017) symbolizes wealth, power, and privilege (a “silver spoon [Wikipedia entry]” ), suggesting that those structures are tools for control and domination. o In Beowulf , the Old English epic poem, the monster Grendel symbolizes a fear of the unknown and the intractability of nature. o In The Great Gatsby , the green light at the end of the Buchanans’ dock symbolizes nostalgia and hope. * A motif is closely related to a symbol, but it is different. A motif is a recurring image, word, or phrase that helps to carry a theme or other abstract idea. For example, William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” includes frequent use of the word “dust.” While the dust is not directly symbolic of anything, it certainly brings to mind a variety of connotations: reading “dust” makes you "Obama iPhone Wallpaper" b y Tony Gumbel i s licensed unde r CC BY 2.0