In literary works, a symbol can express an idea, clarify the meaning, or enlarge literal meaning.
Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work
and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
You may choose any work from this list or another novel or play
As I Lay Dying
The Awakening
Beloved
Bleak House
Cat’s Eye
The Cherry Orchard
The Color Purple
Crime and Punishment
The Crossing
The Crucible
A Doll House
Equus
A Farewell to Arms
Fences
The Glass Menagerie
The Golden Bowl
The Grapes of Wrath
The Hairy Ape
Heart of Darkness
Invisible Man
Jude the Obscure
The Kite Runner
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Macbeth
Madame Bovary
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Moby-Dick
The Namesake
Nineteen Eighty-four
Our Town
The Plague
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Raisin in the Sun
Reservation Blues
Snow
A Streetcar Named Desire
Things Fall Apart
Waiting for Godot
Wise Blood
The Women of Brewster Place