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1.2 General Introduction to Imagery and Symbolism
Imagery—“this term is one of the most common in criticism, and one of the most variable in meaning. Its applications range all the way from the ‘mental pictures’ which, it is sometimes claimed, are experienced by the reader of a poem, to the totality of the components which make up a poem.”(Abrams, 2009:242)
In literature, imagery is an objective thing which bears subjective feelings, and thus makes abstract emotion touchable and concrete and makes the feelings more vivid. To put it simply, it is a way of expressing emotions through specific things which are usually frequently repeated in literary works.
Imagery is the use of vivid description, usually rich in sensory words, to create pictures or images, in the reader's mind. Imagery involves one or more of our five senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight). An author uses a word or phrase to stimulate our memory of those senses.
Imagery is a very common literary device, by using this device, the author does not need to describe too much about what he or she wants to say. The author just applies a proper image, and the image helps demonstrate everything he wants to express. There is “blank space” when an image is applied. The “blank space” invites the readers to attend the story and be a part of it. And this style as “blank space” also makes a splendid effect just like the saying goes that “There's an end to the words, but not to their message.”
“In the broadest sense a symbol is anything which signifies something; in this sense all words are symbols. In discussing literature, however, the term ‘symbol’ is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in its turn signifies something, or has a range of reference, beyond itself. Some symbols are conventional or public: thus ‘the Cross’, ‘the Red, White, Blue’, and ‘the Good Shepherd’ are terms that refer to symbolic objects of which the further significance is determinate within a particular culture. Poets, like all of us, use such conventional symbols; many poets, however, also use ‘private’ or ‘personal symbols’. Often they do so by exploiting widely shared associations between an object or event or action and a particular concept.” (Abrams, 2009:622-624)