ARTSAKH STATE UNIVERSITY

PHILOLOGICAL FACULTY

Department of Romance and Germanic Languages

English Language and Literature

TERM PAPER
THEME: SYMBOLIC MEANINGS OF STYLISTIC DEVICES.

Perfomer: Yana Lalayan

Supervisor: Senior Lecturer

Mkrtchyan A. L.

Stepanakert-2021
 Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………

Chapter I.

1.1.

1.2

Chapter II.

2.1.

2.2

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...

Introduction
Actuality. Symbolism is an important part of interpretation for any subject. In literature, symbolism
is what the author uses in order to convey a deeper meaning to the story. It puts the literal aside and
causes the reader to look between the lines of a story and apply other elements that may or may not
be interpretive. Symbolism can be found in every story ever written, as no literary work is complete
without some form of symbolic meaning. Symbolism in literature has the role of teaching a moral,
enhancing understanding of a story and/or revealing the true meaning behind the plot or a character.

The object of the term paper is the symbolic meanings of stylistic devices.

The subject of the term paper is the

The aim

The solution of the aim requires to bring forward a number of certain tasks:

Chapter I.
 1.1 Concept of symbol and symbolism
"It is in and through symbols that man, consciously or unconsciously, lives, works, and
has his being. Moreover, these ages are accounted the noblest which can best recognize symbolical
worth and prize it highest." Carlyle

Without symbolism there can be no literature; indeed, not even language. What are words
themselves but symbols, almost as arbitrary as the letters which compose them, mere sounds of the
voice? Symbolism began with the first words uttered by the first man, as he named every living
thing; or before them, in heaven, when God named the world into being. The word symbol is
derived from the Latin word “symbolum” which means “creed, token, mark” and from the Greek
word “symbolon” which means “token, watchword, sign.” It is taken from the root words “syn”
which means “with or together” and “ballein” which means “throwing" or which means “throwing
together.” " (Webster, 2003: 1190)

''A symbol,'' says Eugène Goblet d'Alviella, in his book The Migration of Symbols,
''might be defined as a representation which does not aim at being a reproduction.'' Originally, as he
points out, used by the Greeks to denote "the two halves of the tablet they divided between
themselves as a pledge of hospitality," it came to be used as a sign, formula or rite. Gradually the
word extended its meaning, until it came to denote every conventional representation of an idea by
form, of the unseen by the visible. "In a symbol," says Carlyle, there is concealment and yet
revelation: hence, by Silence and by Speech acting together comes a double significance.'' And, in
that fine chapter of Sartor Resartus, he goes further, vindicating for the word its full value: "What
we can call a Symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and
revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as
it were, attainable there."

Symbolism, an aesthetic movement devoted primarily to discovering the true nature of

poetry, originated in France in the latter half of the nineteenth century. A term specifically applied
to the work of late 19th-century French writers who reacted against the descriptive precision and
objectivity of realism and the scientific determinism of naturalism. Symbolism was first used in this
sense by Jean Moreas in Le Figaro in 1886. Baudelaire‘s sonnet Correspondences and the work of
Edgar Allan Poe were important precursors of the movement. Other symbolist writers included
Verlaine, Mallarme, Rimbaud, Lafourge, novelists Joris Karl Huysmans and Eduard Dujardin and
so on. Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé, the central figures in the theory and practice of
symbolism in France, developed Edgar Allan Poe's major premise about the poetic principle-that
poetry is an evocation of eternal states through the discrete image or symbol-into a program for
purifying poetry of the non-poetic. Symbolism emphasized the primary importance of suggestion
and evocation in the expression of a private mood or reverie, as employed by Romantic poets like
Shelley and Blake in England and Novalis and Friedrich Hölderlin in Germany. The symbol was
held to evoke subtle relations and affinities, especially between sound, sense and color, and between
the material and the spiritual worlds. The notion of affinity led to an interest in esoteric and occult
writings and to ideas about the ''musicality'' of poetry, which combined with the Richard Wagner
cult, stressed the possibility of orchestrating the theme of a poem through the evocative power of
words. The techniques of the French Symbolists, who exploited an order of private symbols in
poetry of rich suggestiveness rather than explicit signification had an immense influence throughout
Europe and America on writers like TS Eliot, Yeats, Pound, Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Wallace
Stevens, Ernest Dowson, Dylan Thomas, Hart Crane and so on. Symbolism was introduced into the
English-speaking world by Verlaine's friend Arthur Symons (1865-1945). In The Symbolist
Movement in Literature (1899) Symons argues that symbolism is the essence of language and
literature: our first words were symbolic, and all truly imaginative writers have been symbolists.
Symbolism became a conscious movement in the late nineteenth century as a necessary reaction
against the dense, descriptive method of the naturalistic school of Émile Zola and others. The
Symbolists restored purity to the arts, Symons maintains, by suggesting rather than saying, by
evoking through symbols rather than submitting to the ''old bondage of rhetoric, the old bondage of
exteriority'' and describing through the logic of argument or the record of details. Symbols both
reveal and conceal: they blend the visible and the invisible, the particular and the universal, the
finite and the infinite. Symbols communicate indirectly: concrete images, such as the rose or the
cross, summon up emotional and intellectual associations that cannot be precisely numbered or
named. The Symbolist method focuses on these internal associations and frees poetic language from
the restraints of logical sequence or referential accuracy. This ''liberty,'' as Symons calls it, from the
governing principles of common discourse restores the ''authentic speech'' of mystery to literature.
''Start with an enigma, and then withdraw the key to the enigma'', Symons counsels those who
would approach the Symbolist method. Often this insistence on mystery leads to a dark obscurity of
language, especially with a symbol system in which the correspondences between the concrete term
and its multiple associations seem private to the artist. Many of the writers Symons discusses,
however, draw their symbols from traditional sources of hermetic or occult doctrine, like the
Rosicrucian symbol system Villiers weaves into the fabric of his Axel. The true sources of
Symbolism, Symons concludes, lie in ancient systems of mysticism, and the true purpose of the
movement was to evoke the presence of the infinite and confirm the possibility of immortality
through the associative network of symbols, ancient and modern.
Symons's presentation of the method and mysteries of the French Symbolists exerted profound
influence on the new generation of writers in English. T. S. Eliot acknowledged this influence when
he said in 1930: ''I myself owe Mr. Symons a great debt: but for having read his book I should not
have begun to read Verlaine; and but for reading Verlaine, I should not have heard of Corbière''.
Symons himself was influenced and directed in his understanding of Symbolism by the poet he
described as the ''chief representative of that movement in our country'' and to whom he dedicated
his book, W. B. Yeats (1865-1939). Although Yeats was deeply impressed by Villiers's Axel, which
he saw in 1894, he derived his Symbolist principles from his studies in magic and Irish mythology
and from his pioneering study (with Edwin Ellis, 1891) of the prophetic books of William Blake, a
poet he regarded as the preeminent Symbolist. Yeats made his major theoretical statements on the
method of Symbolism in a series of essays written from 1896 to 1903 collected under the title Ideas
of Good and Evil (a title borrowed from Blake). In an essay on Percy Bysshe Shelley, another of his
Symbolist precursors, Yeats argues that ''there is for every man some one scene, some one
adventure, some one picture that is the image of his secret life, for wisdom first speaks in images''
(Essays 95). If the man or woman is a true poet, then his or her particular image blends into a
universal and invisible order. ''An image that has transcended particular time and place becomes,''
Yeats writes, ''a symbol, passes beyond death, as it were, and becomes a living soul'' (80). Although
he maintains that ''it is only by ancient symbols that any highly subjective art can escape from the
barrenness and shallowness of a too conscious arrangement, into the abundance and depth of
Nature'' (87), he finally makes no distinction between what he calls ''inherent symbols and arbitrary
symbols” in his essay ''Magic'' (49). Both species of symbol, traditional and private, evoke the
presence of the infinite, or what Yeats calls the Great Mind and Great Memory. The borders of our
field of awareness, Yeats declares, are not closed, and our individual mind can become part of this
larger consciousness only through the network of symbols. Neither metaphor nor allegory can fulfill
this poetic principle: Symbolism alone evokes the richness of the Great Mind and Memory. This
Memory, which transcends and connects each individual mind, provided Symbolism with a theory

or explanation of both the process of writing and the experience of reading. The Memory was
evoked through the medium of certain conditions of consciousness, moments of trance,
contemplation, or ''the moment when we are both asleep and awake'' (Essays 159), moments
prolonged in the rapt attention of reading. ''So I think,'' Yeats argued in ''The Symbolism of Poetry,''
a crucial essay from Ideas of Good and Evil, ''that in the making and in the understanding of a work
of art, and the more easily if it is full of patterns and symbols and music, we are lured to the
threshold of sleep'' (160). In this threshold or medial state, produced by a rapt attention to the
rhythm of the work, the reader joins the artist in the work of evocative creation. ''The purpose of
rhythm,''Yeats maintains, ''is to prolong the moment of contemplation, the moment when we are
both asleep and awake, which is the one moment of creation'' (159). In this prolonged moment,
making and understanding, the production and reception of the text, are joined and created through
the intersubjective Memory.

Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it were not also
seen, under one disguise or another, in every great imaginative writer. What distinguishes the
Symbolism of our day from the Symbolism of the past is that it has now become conscious of itself.
The forces which mould the thought of men change, or men's resistance to them slackens; with the
change of men's thought comes a change of literature, alike in its inmost essence and in its outward
form: after the world has starved its soul long enough in the contemplation and the rearrangement of
material things, comes the turn of the soul; and with it comes the literature in which the visible
world is no longer a reality, and the unseen world no longer a dream. The great epoch in French
literature which preceded this epoch was that of the offshoot of Romanticism which produced
Baudelaire, Flaubert, the Goncourts, Taine, Zola, Leconte de Lisle. Taine was the philosopher both
of what had gone before him and of what came immediately after; so that he seems to explain at
once Flaubert and Zola. It was the age of science, the age of material things; and words, with that
facile elasticity which is in them, did miracles in the exact representation of everything that visibly
existed, exactly as it existed. Even Baudelaire, in whom the spirit is always an uneasy guest at the
orgy of life, had a certain theory of Realism which tortures many of his poems into strange, metallic
shapes and fills them with imitative odors and disturbs them with a too deliberate rhetoric of the
flesh. Flaubert, the one impeccable novelist who has ever lived, was resolute to be the novelist of a
world in which art, formal art, was the only escape from the burden of reality, and in which the soul
was of use mainly as the agent of fine literature. The Goncourts caught at Impressionism to render
the fugitive aspects of a world which existed only as a thing of flat spaces, and angles, and colored
movement, in which sun and shadow were the artists; as moods, no less flitting, were the artists of
the merely receptive consciousness of men and women. Zola has tried to build brick and mortar
inside the covers of a book; he is quite sure that the soul is a nervous fluid, which he is quite sure
some man of science is about to catch for us, as a man of science has bottled the air, a pretty, blue
liquid. Leconte de Lisle turned the world to stone but saw, beyond the world, only a pause from
misery in a Nirvana never subtilised to the Eastern ecstasy. With all these writers, form aimed
above all things at being precise, at saying rather than suggesting, at saying what they had to say so
completely that nothing remained over which it might be the business of the reader to divine. And
so they have expressed, finally, a certain aspect of the world; and some of them have carried style to
a point beyond which the style that says, rather than suggests, cannot go. The Symbolist poets are
convinced that the transient objective world is not a true reality but a reflection of the invisible
absolute. It is on this account that they defined realism and naturalism, which are aimed at capturing
the transient. They do not define or describe emotions or ideas directly through explicit metaphors
and similes but by suggesting them implicitly. Images and symbols used through metaphors,
similes, personification, hyperboles and other figures of speech are potent tools in the hands of a
poet to convey his or her meaning and message.

Types of symbols

Sylvan Barnet in his book Literature: Thinking, Reading and Writing critically (1997, p. 906)
mentions two kinds of symbols: natural symbol and conventional symbol. Natural symbols,
meaning those related to nature, might be different from one culture to another. For example, sun
symbolizes birth but in another culture sun symbolizes gods. Different from natural symbol,
conventional symbol means that all people accept that the symbol stands for something other than
itself. The meaning of symbol is widely accepted and known in many cultures. The heart, for
example, is conventionally interpreted as the symbol of love.

Shamisa (2004) classifies symbols into two types: Arbitrary symbols and personal symbols.
Arbitrary symbols are those common and familiar ones that the reader simply can recognize their
meanings, like spring that is a symbol of youth and freshness. Personal symbols are those fresh and
new ones which the writer or the poet newly created, and contrary to arbitrary symbols, their
recognition is difficult for the reader. Another classification of symbol which is selected is stated by
Rokni (2009):

Significative: Arbitrary symbols which are common in each particular field of study. For instance,
@ is a symbol used in email addresses.

Metaphoric: Significant symbols used for natural phenomena, like lion which is a symbol of
courage.

Commemorative: Symbols which add a real event to a memory.

Sacramental: Symbols used in myths and customs.

Pickering and Hoeper in their book ''Concise Companion to Literature'' talked about three kinds of
symbol (Pickering & Hoeper, 1981, pp. 71-72):
1. Traditional symbol

Traditional symbol is a symbol related to the common things in society or culture. It is recognized
and accepted widely or in another word universally known (p. 71). For example, yin yang in
Chinese culture as a symbol of a balance between positive and negative which is acknowledged by
most people.

2. Original symbol

Original symbol is a symbol that is not related to the traditional symbol; its meaning depends on the
context (p. 72). For example, blue color in map means everything related with water, but blue color
in weather information means cold weather.

3. Private symbol

Private symbol is a symbol that has a deeper meaning than original symbol. It is created by a person
as the result of his imagination and knowledge about belief or philosophy (p. 72). For example,
small speck of dust in Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss is a symbol of a fetus. Private symbol may
have different meaning from each other.

After people find out what symbol is and how to identify symbol, people try to know what the
meaning of symbol is. Carl Gustav Jung is a psychotherapist and psychiatrist, who talks about
symbol from psychological point of view. Carl Jung in Benjamin Nagari book’s ''Music as Image:
Analytical Psychology and Music in Film'' believes that dream can be interpreted in symbolic form
by saying that dream is “a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of actual situation in the
unconscious” (Nagari, 2015). Jung inferred that the unconscious state of a person reflects the actual
situation of that person. Kenneth Burke, the American literary theorist also talked about symbol. In
I. C. Baianu articles about symbol, Bruke said that people tend to create symbols by learning from
what they see, from their life experience and from symbols used in the past (I. C. Baianu, 2010).
J.E.Cirlot in his Dictionary of Symbols said that everything in symbolism has meaning and purpose
that are sometimes easily to be recognized and sometimes not, and everything in it will leave trace
or signature which make people try to examine and interpret it (J.E.Cirlot, 2001). There are some
variety of symbols that can be categorized into some groups depending on the meaning. Christian
symbol is a symbol used in Christianity which meanings are related to what the Bible has. For
example, apple in Christian symbol means temptation or original sin. Examples of conventional or
traditional symbols have been thoroughly written by Jean Chevalier. The examples of these
symbolsare presented below (Chevalier, Gheerbrant, & Brown, 1996):
a) Colors, for example (1) Blue represents calmness, coolness, peace, (2) Red represents
immorality, the color of life principle, bravery, and blood is often associated with fire.

b) Nature, for example, (1) Summer season represents maturity, knowledge, (2) Oak tree: strength,
wisdom, (3) Moon represents feminine symbol, (3) Tree: It is the symbol of growth and the sign of
immortality (Gostaniong, 1377: 10). The symbol of tree in myths has an important role. For
instance, "forbidden tree" of paradise or Moses talking with his interlocutor by the use of a tree are
of this kind.

c) Directions, for example, (1) West represents land of evening, old age, and the descending
passage of the sun, (2) South represents the side which lies on the Sun’s left hand and is the hand of
fire, represents of warmth and comfort.

d) Weather, for example, (1) Winds and storms represent violent, human emotions; (2) Thunder
represents the voice of God or gods.

e) Animals, for example, (1) Fox represents slyness, cleverness, (2) Salmon represents instinct,
sacred wisdom. f) Walls, for example, (1) Barriers represents between people, shuts out the world.

g) Human body parts, for example, (1) Bones represents the framework of the human body, since it
contains bone marrow it symbolize strength and virtue, (2) Eyes represents windows to the souls.

h) Objects, for example, (1) Ladder represents symbols of ascension and realization of potential, (2)
Chain represents bond which connect to heaven and earth, ties together extremes and beings.

i) Journeys, for example, Quest for truth, peaceful or immortality.

j) Settings, for example, (1) Forest: place of evil or mystery, (2) An isolated place: loneliness.
Chapter 2. Symbolism in poetry

2.1. Poetic language of symbolism through stylistic devices

When used as a literary device, symbolism means to imbue objects with a certain
meaning that is different from their original meaning or function. Other literary devices, such as
metaphor, allegory, and allusion, aid in the development of symbolism. Authors use symbolism to
tie certain things that may initially seem unimportant to more universal themes. The symbols then
represent these grander ideas or qualities. In poetry, symbols can be categorized as conventional,
something that is generally recognized to represent a certain idea (i.e., a ''rose'' conventionally
symbolizes romance, love, or beauty); in addition, symbols can be categorized as contextual or
literary, something that goes beyond a traditional, public meaning (i.e.,''night'' conventionally
symbolizes darkness, death, or grief; contextually it symbolizes other possibilities such as
loneliness, isolation, fear, or emptiness). Whereas conventional symbols are used in poetry to
convey tone and meaning, contextual or literary symbols reflect the internal state of mind of the
speaker as revealed through the images. In order to have a better understanding of how poems are
written, it is important to review the use of direct and indirect comparison. The literary term for a
direct comparison is simile or a comparison with the words like, as, as if, or as though; the term for
an indirect comparison is metaphor. Simile and metaphor are used to compare two things that are
not similar and shows that they have something in common, as illustrated in the following
examples:

• Life is like a box of chocolates. This is a simile and suggests there are choices to make in life and
one doesn’t always know what to expect from a decision.

• Time is money. This is a metaphor and warns you that time is not infinite and whenever you
expend time, you are making an investment that should be of value.

• O my luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June;

O my luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

In these lines from a poem by Robert Burns ''love'' is compared to ''a red, red rose,'' which suggests
passion and intimacy. The woman loved by the speaker of the poem is like a ''melody'' in that she is
sweet and harmonious, yet there is a gentle reminder that a melody can also be brief and fleeting.

As English poetry has developed over hundreds of years, certain symbolic meanings have attached
themselves to such things as colors, places, times, and animals. A list of these common symbols and
their meanings follows. Sleep is often related to death. Night often suggests darkness, death, or
grief. Dreams are linked to the future or fate. Water is sometimes linked to the idea of birth or
purification. Snakes and guns are often phallic; caves and underwater images often womb-like;
nature imagery, in general, is often associated with the mother or the female. Flowers are also
linked to emotions and/or states of being: rose/romance and love; violets/shyness; lilies/beauty or
temptation; chrysanthemums/perfection. The cycle of natural growth—birth, degeneration, death—
often suggests the cycle of love (e.g., a poem may trace a rose from bud to bloom to withered vine).
Objects are often used to suggest images: a ring/faithfulness and fidelity; a mirror/the sun; a broken
mirror/separation. Light—as the sun, the moon, stars, candles—often symbolizes good, hope,
freedom. The moon has several associations. It is sometimes a feminine symbol, sometimes
associated with madness, sometimes with resurrection. Rainbows are associated with hope or
reward.

Symbolism takes on many forms, whether in the literary world or everyday speech.

Metaphor

A metaphor refers to one thing by directly mentioning another. It essentially compares two
dissimilar things while showing that they have something in common. Therefore, while a metaphor
can provide clarity, it can also show the similarities between the two things or ideas despite their
obvious dissimilarities.

Simile

Rather than implying a comparison like a metaphor, a simile explicitly denotes comparison between
two things. Similes often use the word ''like'' or ''as.'' The two things you compare with a simile are
essentially dissimilar. Unlike metaphors, similes are much more direct comparisons.

Allegory

An allegory refers to a narrative wherein a character, event or place delivers a larger message about
a real-world concern or occurrence. In other words, it's a story in which most characters and plot
developments are symbols for something else or in which the story in its entirety symbolizes a
larger phenomenon in the real-world or society. Rather than coming right out and saying it,
allegories use characters and events to reveal a hidden meaning or message. An allegory is
essentially an extended use of a metaphor and symbolism in general.

Archetype

An archetype refers to a story element such as an idea or character-type that reoccurs in stories and
symbolizes something universal. For example, you can create a character based on certain qualities
or traits that make them identifiable to readers. In the literary world, archetypes refer to characters,
images or themes that symbolically embody a universal meaning or human experience.

Personification

This type of symbolism applies human attributes to something that isn't alive or human. For
example, personification gives human form and sensibilities to various objects such as a chair,
nature, a book or an abstract concept like love or hate. Writers use personification to help their
readers better relate to non-human things or objects.

Hyperbole

Hyperboles use an exaggeration to make a specific point or to add emphasis, whether for a comic or
serious purpose. When used as a figure of speech, you're not meant to take a hyperbole literally.
Like the opposite of an understatement, hyperboles are often extravagant and often ridiculous
overstatements. Not only can a hyperbole catch your attention, but it can also show a contrast
between two things. While many authors use hyperboles in works of fiction, many people also use
hyperboles in everyday speech.

Metonymy

A metonymy substitutes a word with a close association to an entity for the name of the entity itself.
In other words, you refer to a thing by the name of something closely associated with it. Writers use
metonymy to address something more poetically or uniquely. Metonymy also helps them give a
more complex meaning to an otherwise general or ordinary word.

Irony

Irony refers to a figure of speech wherein the intended meaning opposes the literal meaning of the
words expressed. There are various types of irony including dramatic and verbal irony. Irony helps
engage readers and adds another layer to a fictional tale.
Symbolism can give a literary work more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work
deeper. Symbolism can take different forms. Generally, it is an object representing another to give it
an entirely different meaning that is much deeper and more significant. Sometimes, however, an
action, an event or a word spoken by someone may have a symbolic value. For instance, ''smile'' is a
symbol of friendship. Similarly, the action of someone smiling at you may stand as a symbol of the
feeling of affection which that person has for you. Symbolism gives a writer freedom to add double
levels of meanings to his work: A literal one that is self-evident and the symbolic one whose
meaning is far more profound than the literal one. The symbolism, therefore, gives universality to
the characters and the themes of a piece of literature. Symbolism in literature evokes interest in
readers as they find an opportunity to get an insight of the writer's mind on how he views the world
and how he thinks of common objects and actions, having broader implications.

Title: The Little Prince

 Author: Antoine de Saint- Exupéry

Genre: Fiction

Language: French, translated by T.V.F. Cuffe from Penguin Books 1995

Year: 1995

Publisher: Penguin Books

As a quintessential piece of French literature, The Little Prince has been studied time and
time again, looking at themes, setting, characterization, and, most importantly, symbolism.
Throughout this novel, there are numerous symbols used by the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
to provide a greater sense of depth and understanding to the story. The most visually-striking
symbol throughout the course of the novel is Little Prince's red rose.

Rose is a plant that Little Prince loves so much. Not all kind of roses, just the one and
only rose in his planet. Rose symbolizes a young, vulnerable and virgin or pure girl. Here in The
Little Prince, Rose is symbolizing a lover. Rose is blooming in the Little Prince’s planet. She takes
more time to grow because she wants to bloom perfectly. Her beauty caught the Little Prince's eye.
The Rose is different not only by it looks but also by the way she talks naïvely to the Little Prince.

The way Rose talks sometimes irritates the Little Prince's feelings and it makes the Little Prince
decide to leave Rose and begin his journey to learn other things. But then he regrets his decision to
leave her. He realizes how much Rose is important for him. He blames himself by saying that he is
the one who does not understand Rose and is too young to understand love. The last time Little
Prince took care of Rose, Rose still acted similarly; she acted as if she was invulnerable. But, at the

end she admitted her feelings toward the Little Prince. The Little Prince who was moved by Rose’s
word stepped back and felt disturbed. But then Rose told him to keep his word, leave her, and begin
his journey. The Little Prince never knows that flower he loves the most is a rose until he lands on
earth. He feels extremely sad after he finds out that his flower is a common flower. He goes to
garden of roses and finds out that his Rose is not special; it is just same as like the other roses. He
cries a lot because he thinks he has a special flower; it makes him a great prince but he is not.
Unexpectedly, the Little Prince meets the fox who teaches him about the act of taming or creating
ties that later makes him change his point of view about his beloved Rose. The fox explains what
tame is and how it makes the common thing become special by doing some rituals which takes
some time. The Little Prince agrees with what the fox says and he begins the ritual by coming over
the fox every day to make special ties. The rituals the Little Prince does to tame the fox are different

from time to time. The fox does not want the Little Prince because what the Little Prince wants is
just to tame the fox. The Little Prince does not understand that his act of taming the fox will hurt it.
During their encounters, the fox asks the Little Prince to talk to the roses and they will tell a secret
to him. The Little Prince then realizes that his Rose is the most precious Rose, the only one in the
world. Other roses are nothing for him because he takes care of his Rose and he will die for his
Rose. His Rose has tamed his heart; his Rose used to make his day and his Rose needs him to give
love and care. As promised the fox tells the Little Prince a Secret. The fox says that all things that is
important cannot be seen by eyes but felt by heart. By then the Little Prince always remembers
taming and being tamed, Fox’s secret and Fox’s last message that he must be fully responsible with
what he has tamed no matter what.

In this novel an obvious symbol is the desert which symbolizes the loveliest but saddest
place. Desert itself comes from Egyptian hieroglyph that is pronounced ''tésert''; and in Latin verb
known as ''deserere'' which means to abandon. The desert is a symbol of all the obstacles and
hardships that stand between people and their dreams. The desert demands an arduous journey that
people must undertake to achieve what they want. Nothing that is worthwhile comes easily and the
desert becomes a metaphor for the struggle. The novel is set in the Sahara Desert, a barren place
ready to be shaped by experience. The desert is also a hostile space that contains no water and a
deadly serpent. In this capacity, the desert symbolizes the narrator’s mind made barren by grown-up
ideas. In Sahara people hardly get something to eat and drink because only some animals and plants
can bear its extreme weather. People may die from starvation and thirst if people stay there too
long. Although human can survive without food for quite long time but without water it is a
different story. Human cannot survive without water for around a week in a normal weather
(Spector, 2014), but in an extreme weather like in Sahara it would be less than a week. In the first
part, when the aviator is lost in Sahara Dessert, he draws attention by saying ''It was a matter of life
or death: I had barely enough drinking water to last a week'' (p. 7). It means that he will not survive
if he cannot finish his repairing job in less than one week because it is almost impossible to find
water resources around him. The aviator believes that by fixing the engine he can at least get out
from frightening place like the Sahara Desert and get some help in other places. Here the desert is
symbolizing death by the fact that almost none of living things can survive the extreme condition
like Sahara Desert. The desert here is not only a symbol of death but also a symbol of loneliness as
the aviator is all alone in there with a little possibility of seeing other people. The narrator expresses
his loneliness by saying ''On the first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from
all human habitation. I was more isolated than''… (p. 8). Then, surprisingly he meets the Little
Prince who wakes him up a day after he sleeps in Sahara Desert. When the Little Prince arrived on
earth for the first time, he did not see any people and met a snake that explained to him that he
landed in a desert and no one lives there. Here the Little Prince also feels lonely as can be seen in
his question and statement to the snake ''Where are the people?... it’s little lonely in the desert''… (p.
59). It shows a condition that most people who are in the desert will feel lonely even when the little
Prince has the snake to talk to. Another thing that makes the little prince feel lonelier is when he
stands up on the top of mountain in Sahara Desert and the only thing that answers him is the echo.
Then the little prince starts to feel homesick and misses his flower. The desert is a perfect image to
suggest the isolation of the characters - both the pilot and the Prince. They are on their own. They
have only themselves, the beauty of the desert and the stars, and the lessons they are mulling over in
their brains to keep them company. Later, like the Little Prince, the aviator starts to love the desert
and does not think that desert is a place of death. Instead, the aviator describes the desert as a
beautiful place that gives him something powerful in silence. Since the aviator meets the Little
Prince, miraculously good things keep coming. They absurdly find a well with water in Sahara
Desert. Then in the next day the aviator successfully finishes his repairing job. When the aviator is
going to tell the good news to the Little Prince, the Little Prince is bitten by a snake. In order to go
back to the place where he comes from the Little Prince should be bitten by the snake on the day he
returns home, the star. Since then Sahara Desert is not same as before, it is not place of death or
loneliness anymore for the Aviator but, the saddest place because he loses his one and only friend in
Sahara Desert. However, it is also the loveliest place because of his beautiful memories with the
Little Prince. At the beginning the author wants to show that desert symbolizes death and
loneliness. According to A Dictionary of Literary Symbols by Michael Ferber, desert has the same
meaning as a forest which is “traditionally dark, labyrinthine, and filled with dangerous beasts” or
shortly full of mystery and dangerous. It means it is impossible for people to survive when they are
lost in either the forest or the desert. In its actual form, desert is not labyrinthine but people who
walk in the desert do not know either they walk in the right direction or they just make a circle.
Generally, desert symbolizes a place which is full of mystery and dangers. Here in the novel,
according to Pickering and Hoeper’s Theory, desert is a private symbol: desert as the symbol of
loneliness is broken by the Little Prince's presence, and desert as the symbol of death is broken by
good things that keep coming from the Little Prince presence.
 Stars symbolize the home for pristine souls. They are symbolic of divinity with a belief
being that the countless stars we see in the distance are fallen angels cast out from heaven. For the
pilot, stars come first as a means of navigation, for he looks at them and can orient himself. But
after the meeting with the Little Prince, they acquire more importance for him, as one of the stars is
the Little Prince’s home. Stars symbolize the universe, its mystery, and the unknown for people.
Stars in The Little Prince novel are stars that people can see with bare eyes at night, not sun as a
star. In the beginning stars have been mentioned several times without deep meaning. It is when the
narrator tells the journey of the Little Prince to some planets that stars have deep meaning. The
Little Prince had visited the stars in the planet which is inhabited by a king. The stars are just
subjects that should obey all king’s order because the king’s reign over everything. When the Little
Prince first arrived and saw what the king can do, he was amazed by the king’s power. When the
time goes by, the Little Prince starts to feel bored because there is nothing to do in the king's planet.
So, the Little Prince tries to leave the king's planet. Then, the king orders the Little Prince to do a lot
of things but the king never listens to what Little Prince asks. Even the king claims that he reigns
over everything, but still he cannot make the Little Prince stay in his planet. In the fourth planet, the
stars are worth of diamond for the businessman who lives there. The businessman is always busy
counting the stars he owns and he keeps buying another star. Different from the king who rules over
the stars, the businessman owns the starts because nobody ever claims them before. Although the
businessman has millions of stars but he cannot use them nor collect them. Stars in this novel have
several meanings, but there is only one meaning that the author wants to emphasize. When the Little
Prince lands on the Earth for the first time, he feels amazed and says ''…does the stars glow so that
someday everyone can find a way back to their own?...''(p. 58). Here the Little prince draws
attention by saying that people will be back to the stars. Then, the snake who talks to him says that
Little Prince is made from purer stuff and will be back to his planet if the snake bites the Little
Prince. The Little Prince also talks about flower and stars. He says that if someone loves a flower
among the millions stars, people will be happy by only looking at the night sky. By looking at the
beautiful stars, the Little Prince channels his longing for the flowers he plants in his own planet. In
the end, the Little Prince is bitten by the snake on his anniversary of landing on earth. As the Little
Prince needs to return home on his anniversary, he walks to look for the place he landed for the first
time. The stars shine directly above him. Before the Little Prince leaves earth, he gives stars in the
sky to the aviator as a present by saying that the Aviator will be the only one who has stars that can
laugh since the Little Prince will live on one of million stars in the sky and will laugh from there
later. The Little Prince says that stars are guides for travelers, problem to solve for scientists, gold
for businessman, and merely little lights or silence for the others. Stars then have different meaning
for the aviator and the readers. Stars are traditionally impossible to carry a single meaning. For
example, stars mean spirits who struggle against darkness since stars are shining in the dark night
sky and the others believe that stars are intercommunication between human world and the other
world (J.E.Cirlot, 2001). In The Little Prince’s story, it has been explained that stars have different
meaning for each person. However, the Little Prince as the main character never agrees with the
way other people see stars. For the Little Prince, stars are special. One of the stars in the sky is his
home. He believes that the reason the stars are shining is to let people find way to go home later.
The narrator’s final drawing portraying a single star over the lonely desert symbolizes both the little
prince’s absence on Earth and his presence in the pilot’s heart and thoughts.

Baobabs come out in The Little Prince novel as huge trees that grow in a small planet
where the Little Prince lives. The baobabs and their deceptively small seeds represent problems that
may seem insignificant but, if left to grow unchecked, can become a threat to people's very
existence. Baobabs are special plants in this story, the aviator learns about baobabs in the third day
he is lost in Sahara Desert. It is when the Little Prince asks question about whether the sheep eats
small bushes or not. The aviator agrees that the sheep eat bushes. What makes the aviator wonder is
when the Little Prince says ''Then it follows that they also eat baobabs.'' (p. 18). The aviator knows
that baobabs are not small bushes and he thinks that it is a strange statement. People know that
Baobab is a huge tree, bigger than an elephant, so it is impossible for a sheep to eat baobabs. Even
an elephant cannot eat the whole baobab - the Aviator reminds the Little Prince about it. But then,
the Little Prince wisely answers ''Baobabs, before they grow big, start off small.'' (p. 19). Yet, the
aviator still cannot understand why the Little Prince wants the sheep to eat the baby baobabs. The
answer is that because baobabs in the Little Prince’s planet are a big problem. While the real baobab
is a big plant which lives for years and grow massive, but its root does not destroy earth. In the
Little Prince’s planet, the baobab tree's roots destroy the planet. Good plants come from good seeds
and bad plants come from bad seeds and Baobabs seeds, bad seeds are infested in the Little Prince's
planet. The Little Prince realizes that baobab is a bad plant. Then in the morning after he cleans
himself up, he washes and dresses his planet. Plants will grow and no one will know what kind of
plant it will become because in its early stage, plants always look alike. The Little Prince keeps his
planet from disaster by cleaning up and plucking out baby baobabs .The aviator says that seeds are
invisible and will grow into innocent little shoots at first. People should pluck them out only if they
grow into bad plants. People should get rid of the bad plant or problem once they realize that they
will grow as terrible plants. The Little Prince also adds that it is boring to clean and choose the
plants carefully every day because bad plant and good plant resemble each other in the early youth.
Even when it is a boring thing to do, the Little Prince has to keep on doing the weeding to avoid
disaster because no one can tackle baobabs down if they are rooted already. The writer wants to
deliver the message that a small problem will grow bigger if people neglect it. No matter how trivial
the problem is, people must solve and finish it before it ruins their life. Problems are like baobabs
which grow in a small place and ruin the pot. Then, when the trees get bigger, they can destroy the
planet. The Little Prince informed that after people wash and dress themselves up, they should wash
and dress their planet. It shows that people should be self-discipline both for themselves and for
other so small problems will not become big problems.

Water is the symbol of life. It quenches the thirst of people lost in a desert, is the source
of everything existing on the Earth, is the food and the flesh of everyone, and is the substance that
makes revival possible. The water in the Little Prince symbolizes spiritual fear of dying. Water is an
important thing for the aviator since he is lost in Sahara Desert. Many times the aviator mentions
that water is what he needs the most to survive in the desert. Water becomes a more serious thing
when the Little Prince meets a merchant on earth. The merchant sells pills of great time-sever in
which people will not feel thirsty anymore if they swallow one each week; and they can save fifty-
three minutes every week. In fifty-tree minutes people can do anything they want. At that time the
Little Prince surprisingly says, ''I would take my time walking slowly towards the nearest fountain
water.'' The aviator hears Little Prince’s story while he drinks his last water supply and does not
really like the Little Prince’s statement about the pills by saying, ''I have nothing left to drink, and I
too should be happy if I could take my time walking slowly towards the nearest fountain of water!''.
The aviator has no time for looking for water since he has not finished his repairing job. After
talking about the Little Prince relationship with the fox, suddenly the Little Prince knows what is in
the aviator mind and says that he is thirsty too and asks the aviator to look for a well. The aviator
just follows the Little Prince although he believes that it is impossible to find water. The Little
Prince tells the aviator that important things cannot be seen but it should be felt by heart. It is the
same as the time they find water. It is the most beautiful thing that they ever been through as
companion. The Little Prince also tells the Aviator that on earth people do not know what they are
looking for while the actual answer can be found in a single rose or a handful of water. The Little
Prince's statement shows that water is something important for the soul not for the physical body
only. It is true that water is the most important thing for the body, but here in The Little Prince
water is a nourishment for the soul. People will not literally die if they do not nourish their soul but
they will be alive as a human with no heart. Before the Little Prince goes back to the star, he says
that he shall be living on one of the stars in the sky and stars will pour unlimited water for him;
water that nourishes his soul. For the Little Prince, drinking the water with the Aviator is the
happiest moment and vice versa.
 Most of the characters in the book are highly symbolic as well.

The Little Prince represents innocence, ignorance, purity. When the Prince goes to visit
the people on the planets, he cannot understand them and thinks that they are very bizarre. He
wonders why the Businessman counts the stars because he doesn't do anything with them except
"possess" them. He also does not understand why his Flower is "ephemeral", and that he will lose
her one day because she will die. These truths remain unclear throughout his journey because he is
innocent. He cannot see the reality of the world around him, nor can he understand the mind of the
adults. When he meets the Snake, the Snake does not bite him because he is so pure. The Little
Prince does not know the dangers that a snake represents and so he talks to it just like he did to the
Fox. His mind is unadulterated by evil, money, and greed like the mind of adults are. Furthermore,
he can see what adults don't. For example, he finally understands the importance of the flower to
him because she is unique to him and he is to her. Hence, he must protect and care for her. Adults
don't understand things like this: they don't know why a flower would ever be as important as
money or fame, nor would they care if a flower died and the stars cried. The Prince brings back
childhood memories into the life of the narrator that he has long forgotten. He teaches the narrator
to be responsible for those you love and have tamed, and to be yourself even though no one is
listening to you. The little prince also teaches us that the best things in the world aren't necessarily
the most expensive, the rarest, the fanciest, but the things that we see and can enjoy everyday like
friends and family.

King is a symbol of power and mightiness. But in the Little Prince he is depicted a self-
centered person who thinks highly of himself. However, this superiority brings only loneliness to
him and causes people, like the little Prince to leave him. He thinks he knows everything and
possesses everything, but in truth, he is very ignorant of the world beyond his miniature planet. The
King represents people in our society who think of themselves as superior beings. They don't listen

to other's opinions and disregard the consequences of their actions. In the end, all they get is
disrespect instead of the respect that they believe they should have.

The Clown, like the King, is also very conceited. However, unlike the King, he is so self-
indulged that he lives his life looking for admirers. The Clown is like a blind person who cannot see
the beauty of the world because he is so focused on himself. He also does not recognize faults
within himself because he's so self-absorbed. For a person to be respected and admired, one needs
to contribute to the world or to make a difference in someone's life. The Clown does neither. He is
living a life that is meaningless and full of lies because he fully believes that he's the most
wonderful person in the world, even though he did nothing to build his reputation. Hence, One
cannot judge a person by their appearance or by the way they talk. One can only judge a person by
the things they do and don't do.

The Businessman represents the perfect adult because his mind is only occupied by
numbers. As we grow up, our interests change because of what society demands of us. We must
take responsibility and earn a living. Hence, we can no longer be a child and play with toys or do
innocent, naughty things.

The tippler or the drunkard is a man who drinks because he is ashamed of drinking!! It's a
vicious cycle that goes on forever...such men are seen in real life.

The Geographer: Why is it that the geographer speaks and records about these adventures, but never
lives them? The geographer speaks of all this stuff involving geography but claims that he is a
geographer not an explorer, therefore it is not "his" job to explore his planet.

The snake is a classic symbol of the tempter, of wisdom marred by cunning. The snake in The Little
Prince isn't quite as evil as his biblical cousin, but he does offer the prince an easy way out of his
misery and is ultimately responsible for his death. The snake was The Little Prince's
"transportation" to his little asteroid and his beloved rose. The snake also represents death. Because
of the Little Prince's desire to return to his beloved rose, he makes the decision to allow the snake to
take him there.

Taming (Metaphor)

Taming puts in place a new arrangement in the world: an emotional relationship. It supplants the
pragmatic relationship, when things were understood only in terms of utility. Now it is not their
function that counts but the power of suggestion they envelop. The color of wheat led the fox to the
little prince, just as the stars remind the pilot of the prince. The wheat or the stars do not exist as
things; they are signs to the little prince, and they have the value of metaphors.

The Pilot (Simile)

When the pilot crash-lands in the Sahara, he says "I was more isolated than a man shipwrecked on a
raft in the middle of the ocean" (3). This simile allows readers to see just how alone he is. Like a

man shipwrecked on a tiny raft amidst the watery wastes of the ocean, he is alone in the "waves" of
sand in the Sahara. His isolation is what makes the little prince's arrival so startling; this is also what
links the two of them together, as the prince is also completely alone.
Baobabs (Simile)

The prince tells the narrator about baobabs and the narrator responds thusly: "I pointed out to the
little prince that baobabs are not bushes but trees as tall as churches" (14). This simile allows the
reader to envision just how large and imposing the baobabs are, which is significant because many
critics believe the baobabs are symbols of the Nazis due to their interest in spreading out (Hitler's
lebensraum) and conquering.

Prince as Lamp (Metaphor)

This is a lovely metaphor because it indicates just how small and meek the little prince actually is,
though he is often loud and querulous and questioning. Towards the end of the prince's life, the
narrator says: "And I realized he was even more fragile than I had thought. Lamps must be
protected: A gust of wind can blow them out..." (69). He uses the image of a lamp that can easily be
blown out to suggest that the prince's life can be quickly extinguished. This is a metaphor but also a
foreshadowing since the prince does die.

Army (Simile)

The narrator describes the army of lamplighters: "the movements of this army were ordered like
those of a ballet" (48). This simile not only adds grace to a rather quotidian task, but also reinforces
how rigid the tasks are that adults undertake. The simile is also a somewhat flowery and "witty"
way to describe the lamplighters, which the narrator admits and apologizes for. It reminds readers
that the narrator is an adult and prone to such superfluities.

Adult Perspective and Credibilty (Situational Irony)

The unique perspective of childhood, such as the ability to correctly identify a drawing of a boa
constrictor digesting an elephant, is lost with adulthood. However, it is only by attaining adulthood
and growing up that a person develops credibility. Adults, who are supposed to be respected by
children, are not always in possession of all the facts and the ability to see things "as they really are"
is lost with adulthood. One can therefore have insight or credibility, but not both at once.

Meaning (Situational Irony)

During the little prince's travels among the various asteroids, he meets several different kinds of
adults. Most of them engage in meaningless tasks, such as lighting and dimming street lamps on an
asteroid where nobody lives, or counting the stars and imagining that they own them all. The adults,
particularly the vain man and the king, are very self-important and convinced of the necessity and
importance of their tasks, yet objectively they are not productive. The little prince's goal, which is to
love and serve his "ephemeral" flower, is one deemed by the adults to be ridiculous.

Accomplishment (Situational Irony)

Having accomplished his goal, the little prince is too tired and unable to return physically to his
asteroid. The only way he can do so is by allowing a poisonous snake to bite him and by leaving his
body behind in the desert, returning in spirit only. He accomplished his goal by finding the
knowledge he sought, but it killed him: he was unable to physically return so that he and the flower
could benefit from it.

Solitude (Situational Irony)

Each of the men the little prince meets on the way to Earth is alone on his asteroid, much like the
little prince was alone on his. They all have absolute power over their surroundings, and are in
control of what they do since there is nobody else to contradict their will, yet it does not make them
truly happy. Only by interacting with other people can the king and the vain man get what they
want (power and admiration, respectively), and they can only satisfy the deepest desires of their
hearts by leaving their respective domains. But they choose to remain anyway. Only the little prince
chooses to leave his planet.
Conclusion
 Bibliography

 https://www.gradesaver.com/the-little-prince/study-guide/metaphors-and-similes
 https://symbolism.fandom.com/wiki/The_Little_Prince
 http://sparknotes.com/lit/littleprince/symbols/
 https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379412793_Fadaee.pdf
 The Symbolist Movement in Literature Arthur Symons (1899)
 https://literariness.org/2020/12/12/symbolism/#:~:text=Symbolism%20was
%20introduced%20into%20the,imaginative%20writers%20have%20been
%20symbolists.
 http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/repository/files/writing-for-english-courses/
Symbolism-in-Poetry.pdf
 https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-symbolism
 https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-symbolism-in-
poetry.html#:~:text=So%2C%20what%20is%20symbolism%20in,of%20cold%20or
%20dark%20objects.
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