Recommendations for Teaching Symbolism in Poetry or Short Stories
“Communism! The red means communism!”
As we guided our AP Lit students through our Norman Rockwell interpretation activity one year, it was clear that the previous year’s APUSH class had stuck with them. Every single painting, every occurrence of red? Communism.
Humorous as it was, the experience illustrates how challenging teaching symbolism can be.
On one end of the “teaching symbolism” pendulum, you have the students who don’t get it. They’re very literal, they don’t see the deeper meaning behind the image no matter how many neon signs you and the author point at it, and when you explain it to them, they assume you just made up the connection.
On the other end of the “teaching symbolism” pendulum, you have the symbol hunters. Everything is a symbol, no matter how tenuous the evidence. This can be amusing (if slightly annoying) in classroom discussion, but it becomes a real problem when these students run free in literary analysis essays, basing an argument on a symbol that isn’t really there.
We don’t blame students for this, by the way.
Recognizing symbolism is challenging, especially if you’re a novice reader and especially if your brain tends more toward logic than creativity. And when you do start to get it, it’s fun. You’ve unlocked secret “English teacher knowledge,” gaining a tool that helps you discover the hidden meaning behind the words on the page.
Despite the challenges, teaching symbolism is important. Symbols are a powerful tool that authors use to convey their messages, and our experience as readers just wouldn’t be the same without the mockingbird, the green light at the end of the dock, the mockingjay, the one ring to rule them all, the lightning scar, or the farm full of pigs and horses.
Teaching symbolism is also important because it’s not something most students will pick up on their own. They need guidance and practice, and there are always more subtle and complex symbols available for analysis.
While we won’t claim to have mastered the art of teaching symbolism (we wish!), we have picked up some strategies that have helped our students get just a little bit more adept at using this tool in their literary toolkit.
What, Exactly, Is Symbolism?
Part of what makes teaching symbolism tricky is that it is often misidentified. Symbolism can become a catch-all term for any use of figurative language or writing that just seems to have some extra resonance, and it’s especially easily confused with metaphor.
Here’s the definition we use with our students.
Symbol – an object (or place, name, etc.) that functions both literally and figuratively in a text; that is, the object is literally in the text, but it also represents something else.
Example: In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the blue-eyed baby doll symbolizes the ideal of white beauty that is imposed upon girls of all races from a young age.
Our textbook provided a helpful clarification that has stuck with us: an image only functions on the literal level, a metaphor only functions on the figurative level (it’s not literally present in the story), and a symbol is both literally present in the text and carries figurative meaning.
When teaching symbolism, there’s one other super important point to clarify with students.
Part of what makes symbols so difficult to identify and discuss is that they don’t usually have a one-to-one meaning; instead, they represent a range of meanings. Different people with different experiences are going to connect with different aspects within this range.
BUT. And this is a BIG but.
A symbol cannot mean anything an individual wants it to. It’s easy for well-meaning teachers and over-eager students to misunderstand the idea that individuals can interpret symbols differently, claiming that symbols are entirely open to personal interpretation.
When we say that a symbol represents a range of meanings, that’s still a defined and limited range of meanings. Any interpretation of a symbol must be supported by the text (something our red-means-Communism students struggled to grasp). We have to test our brainstorm of “things a symbol could possibly mean” against what is actually happening in this text before we make our decision.
We do our students a huge disservice when we don’t gently but firmly keep them within that limited range.
Should I Teach Symbolism with Poetry or Short Stories?
Great question.
Either one works (or both!), depending on your curriculum guide and your students.
Some literary terms, like those relating to plot, character, point of view, and theme tend to work best with short stories. They may show up occasionally in poetry, but they’re far more common in prose.
Other literary terms, like imagery, figurative language, sound devices, structure and form, and denotation and connotation (really, anything that requires close reading at the individual word level) work far better with poetry.
Symbolism, however, is one of the few devices that works equally well with either, making it an easy one to bend to your individual demands.
For what it’s worth, here’s what we did:
- With our standard-level students, we taught symbolism with short stories. Poetry and symbolism are each hard enough to understand on their own, and our students generally did better with it in the context of short stories.
- With our AP students, we introduced symbolism with short stories since it’s more accessible to students in that context, and then we revisited it as an area of focus within our poetry unit.
Depending on your curriculum and your students, this could also be a literary term that you introduce when it appears. If you’re teaching a novel that relies on a key symbol, it may work best for you and your students to do a mini-lesson on symbolism when you’re ready to discuss that symbol instead of as its own unit.
Since our strategies for teaching symbolism are the same with both poetry and prose, we’ve combined them here into one blog post.
What About Allegory?
A term that’s closely related to symbolism is allegory, and it poses a bit of a conundrum for teachers. On the one hand, if we want to be thorough, it is a term we want to introduce to our students. However, it’s pretty rare (especially in modern literature), and if your students are like ours, a little knowledge can be dangerous. We had to make a rule that allegory was off-limits for literary analysis essays unless we told them otherwise.
For reference, here’s how we define allegory for our students: a narrative made up of a network of symbols that work together to give the story a second meaning beneath the surface.
Allegories tend to have a specific purpose in mind, so the symbols within the text have a much more limited (and obvious) meaning, and they work together to convey a larger idea.
One challenging thing about allegory is that, unless you teach Animal Farm (or you know your students have read it in previous years), it’s tough to give examples. The most well-known examples of allegory tend to be religious, and not that many students (in our experience) are familiar with John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (shocking, we know).
We don’t discuss allegory in our standard-level classes. It’s just not worth it, and it’s not a term the majority of them are likely to encounter frequently (if at all).
With AP Literature, we teach the term with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” which allows us to discuss both symbol and allegory and place them in the context of Hawthorne’s critique of the Puritans. We bring up the term again when we teach Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” in our poetry unit (which we’d argue has allegorical elements but isn’t necessarily an allegory), but otherwise, we explain to students that allegory is relatively rare and not something the College Board is likely to give them on the AP Lit exam.
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8 Strategies for Teaching Symbolism
1
Introduce the concept with common images that serve as symbols.
We introduced the concept of symbolism in our standard-level classes by having students explain a variety of common symbols in daily life. For each image, students completed this sentence frame: “Literally, this is an image of __________, but figuratively, it is associated with __________.”
We included images of the video “play” icon, men’s and women’s bathroom signs, a peace sign, the Apple logo, the Starbucks logo, an owl, the Statue of Liberty, a pink ribbon (for breast cancer awareness), the colors black and white, Beauty and the Beast, and hands holding out an apple (from the Twilight cover).
We’d probably update some of those now (it’s been a good few years since we used that exact activity), but many would still work, and the activity was accessible for our students.
2
Have students complete a quick write about why someone might wear or carry a common symbol.
This would work well as an extension of the previous activity, but you could ask students to write about a common symbol they’ve seen people wear (jewelry, tattoos, stickers on laptops or water bottles) and why a person might carry that or what it might mean to them or say to others about them.
This helps reinforce the idea that the figurative meaning of a symbol is often more important than the literal meaning: it’s not the image that people are drawn to but what that image says.
3
Discuss accessible symbols from popular culture.
We always find it helpful to start with popular culture before we dive into texts students might find challenging. Asking students to share symbols from movies, TV shows, or comics they enjoy can be a helpful transition.
Symbolism in movies like The Hunger Games, the Harry Potter series, or anything Disney is often easier for students to identify than the symbols you’ll encounter in the texts you read together. Whether students discuss these examples in a think-pair-share or you watch a movie together, visual texts provide a helpful entry point for students.
4
Introduce symbolism with a short film.
You may not have time to watch a full-length movie just to introduce the concept of symbolism, but short films can be a great way to bridge the gap between definition of a term and identifying it in a complex text. We’re big fans of Pixar shorts for this purpose; “Bao” and “La Luna,” in particular, work well for symbolism.
5
Discuss common symbols that appear frequently in literature and popular culture.
Many symbols are so embedded in our cultural consciousness that we interpret them without even realizing we’re doing so. Color symbolism absolutely works this way, and most students have some ideas about what weather and the four seasons might symbolize.
6
Introduce older students to Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
If you teach AP Literature or even a PreAP or honors English course, we recommend introducing students to Foster’s “how-to” guide for interpreting common symbols in literature. Full of friendly advice and examples, the text unlocks the meaning of commonly used symbols for students and gives them some tips for interpreting new symbols on their own.
If you have time to teach the full text, we’ve got you covered with a study guide, quizzes, and escape room review activity; if you don’t have time for all of it, we think these are the most essential chapters.
7
Use a graphic organizer to interpret a specific symbol.
If you’re reading a text with a significant symbol in it, consider having students create a bubble map with characteristics of the literal object as a way to brainstorm symbolic possibilities. Once students have started to form an idea of what the symbol might actually mean, consider using a Venn Diagram to explore how the literal object and its figurative counterpart are similar and different.
Visually representing the connection between the literary and figurative meanings is often helpful, especially for students who tend to be very literal.
8
Use the 5C paragraph format to practice explaining a symbol.
We’re big fans of incorporating short writing practice assignments wherever we can, and symbolism is the perfect place to slip in a quick review of the 5C paragraph. Students can make a claim about the meaning of the symbol, provide a piece of concrete evidence from the text, explain the symbolism in the context and commentary sentences, and tie the symbol to the text as a whole in the connection sentence.
This helps students practice analyzing a symbol and reinforces their writing skills without the stress (or grading) of a full essay.
4 Short Stories for Teaching Symbolism to Standard-Level Students
“Marigolds,” by Eugenia W. Collier
Set during the Great Depression, Collier’s story illuminates the loss of innocence that accompanies both the realization that our actions can have a harmful impact on others and the impact of financial stress and family conflict on children. Naturally, the marigolds play a key role and serve as a symbol that students find relatively accessible.
“The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe
While challenging for many standard-level students, Poe’s narrative about the wealthy class that insulates themselves amidst a deadly plague feels more accessible than ever post-COVID and offers opportunities for students to unpack a variety of symbols. Color symbolism is especially relevant in this one.
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. Le Guin
With similar themes to The Hunger Games and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Le Guin’s narrative about the lengths a town will go to in order to live a carefree life of peace and joy is unsettling and thought-provoking. While the story is challenging for students, Le Guin’s symbolism is something they can unpack with guidance. (Do be aware that child abuse plays a significant role in this story.)
In trying to find a link for this story, we came across Le Guin’s own words in the collection linked above, which are perfect: the story “has a long and happy career of being used by teachers to upset students and make them argue fiercely about morality.”
“Through the Tunnel,” by Doris Lessing
Lessing’s coming-of-age story narrates 11-year-old Jerry’s efforts to swim through an underwater tunnel while on a beach vacation with his mother. The challenging task pushes Jerry to the limits of his physical strength, but the symbolism of the tunnel is easy for students to pick up on and relate to, and the text is accessible to a wide variety of readers.
4 Short Stories for Teaching Symbolism to AP Lit Students
“Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver
Carver’s short story was a go-to in our AP Literature class for many years. Narrated from the perspective of a fairly unlikable man who is not happy to welcome his wife’s blind male friend as a guest in his home, the story traces the narrator’s slight thawing toward the man over the course of the evening, in part through the shared drawing of a cathedral (hello, symbolism). The short story works well for discussing characterization and, if you read Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, communion.
“The Rocking Horse Winner,” by D.H. Lawrence
While not our particular favorite, Lawrence’s short story is a classic, and the rocking horse is a clear symbol in this story about the destructive power of materialism as a young boy tries desperately to win his mother’s love. (Foster discusses this story in his chapter, “It’s All About Sex . . .” but this reading of the text will not go over well in all communities.)
“The Very Old Man with the Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This short story—about the atypical “angel” whose appearance brings unexpected fortune to Pelayo and Elisenda— gives you the opportunity to introduce magical realism to your students without tackling one of Garcia Marquez’s lengthy novels. While our textbook used it to introduce the concept of fantasy, Foster uses it in his chapter on the symbolic use of flying (though irony is heavily at play in this one).
“Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
We’ll be honest: this was our go-to for years not because it was so engaging for students but because it was efficient. It allowed us to cover symbolism and allegory along with an older text and a quick introduction to Hawthorne (without tackling The Scarlet Letter in its entirety). The story narrates Young Goodman Brown’s journey into the woods to meet with the devil before returning to live out the rest of his days as a “good Christian man.” In the end, the story raises significant questions about the impact of doubt and uncertainty (and the ambiguous ending is infuriating for students, which makes for good discussion).
The symbolism is clear and easy for students to identify, but because the story is an allegory, it allows us to provide an example for students of that particular term, and when paired with “Cathedral,” to explore how symbolism and allegory are different.
Since leaving the classroom, we’ve discovered some additional short stories that would work well here: “Cherry Coke and Mint Pulao” and “Death by Scrabble.”
9 Poems for Teaching Symbolism in AP Literature
“Because I could not stop for Death,” by Emily Dickinson
Dickinson’s poem is an opportunity to explore, if not allegory, then allegorical elements as Death arrives in a carriage to take the speaker for a ride.
“Fire and Ice,” by Robert Frost
Short, sweet, and quite accessible, Frost’s musings on whether the world will end in fire or ice allow students to explore the symbolic possibilities of the two options as they relate to human behavior.
“A Noiseless Patient Spider,” by Walt Whitman
Whitman is quite explicit in using a spider as a symbol for the human soul, making this a great opportunity to discuss not what is the symbol but why the spider makes an appropriate symbol for the human soul.
“Peace,” by George Herbert
Herbert’s search for peace is full of religious symbolism, whether you want to use it to test students’ knowledge of biblical allusions or work in a community where students have their own familiarity with the Bible.
“The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost
This was one of our go-to symbolism poems, in large part because it is so frequently misinterpreted. Not a poem about choosing the non-conformist path, Frost’s poem reflects on the regrets that come from a life of having to make choices between equally good options. Much as we’d like to, we just cannot do it all.
“The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats
We started teaching this one so that our students would recognize the allusion when we got to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in the late spring, but there’s a lot to unpack in this complex poem full of foreboding about the end of the world.
“The Sick Rose,” by William Blake
Our textbook used Blake’s poem to illustrate the point that symbols are open to a wide range of interpretations within which our personal experiences shape our interpretation. The worm that destroys the rose can represent anything bad that corrupts or destroys something good, leaving plenty of room for personal resonance to (appropriately) enter the discussion.
“To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” by Robert Herrick
Herrick’s poem is essentially a carpe diem poem—not only about virgins who need to get married—but much tamer than Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”
“The Writer,” by Richard Wilbur
We’re pretty sure we taught this one every single year—the speaker is a father (and a writer) reflecting on the challenges of writing as he hears his daughter typing in her room upstairs. After a full semester in AP Lit, our students could relate to the bruised and battered bird Wilbur uses as his key symbol.
Teaching symbolism is absolutely a challenge, but it’s something our students need our help with. Symbolism is one of those literary techniques that students will have the opportunity to analyze and appreciate no matter where they go beyond our class—whether they go on to be readers or consumers of popular culture, they’re going to encounter symbolism again.
If you’re looking to incorporate some of the resources we’ve mentioned today into your poetry unit, you might find these three particularly helpful: our literary terms list, our 5C paragraph structure mini-lesson (which comes with a character analysis prompt that could easily be modified to help students practice discussing symbolism), and our mini-unit on Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
