The green light, the red hat, the whiteness of a whale ...
Symbolism in literature is the catnip of the English teacher and often the bane of existence and teeth clenching frustration for the high school and college student. "Does it really mean that?" has been asked by more students than "can I have a bathroom pass?" And while the use of symbolism is undoubtedly a key technique for writers of western literature -- drawing heavily from the Judeo-Christian ethic and foundational literary and philosophical works of western civ -- authors and readers will occasionally dismiss the very possibility of a symbolic component, glibly noting "the names were simply pulled from a phonebook" or "sometimes yellow is just a color."
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