Symbols Literal and figurative(11-7-17)

Today in class we learned about symbols. But before we dove right into symbols we first differentiated(separated) symbols into Literal and Figurative parts. A literal term is something that directly represents a concrete idea. Think about if you cut your self and say "I am bleeding" this is literal because that is what is happening. I like to think of it as when you hear someone say something so blatantly obvious it hurts you. Figurative is the complete opposite of literal as in it represents an abstract idea. Like when someone says something along the lines of "OMG I am LITERALLY dying!!" Like. No. Stop. You are not literally dying you are figuratively dying. With this new gained innovative knowledge you now have gained the ability to be a little less unappealing in a normal conversation. Now going on to what we really went over in class today. A symbol is a literal object/character/action/place that also has a figurative meaning. In class we used the American flag for an example. Literally,(used correctly) this is a flag colored red white and blue with stars and stripes. Figuratively, it shows freedom, independence, and even the establishment of a country. The most important things that were gained from this lesson is, symbols are a combination of literal and figurative, and more importantly... SYMBOLS CAN BE INTERPRETED(I used caps to make sure if you are skimming this that you see this fragment).
Now onto the real world. Symbols are everywhere. Even if you cannot see them, they are there. From Lady Justice, to the book Animal Farm many things contain symbols and symbolism. Even color can be used as a symbol to display emotions and fortune. Picking up on symbols can be cool and help better understand what you are seeing or watching. Like in Animal Farm, if you do not understand that that is a symbol for communism then the whole book is a disturbing story of a pigs conquest of a farm going horribly wrong. And I cannot emphasize enough that symbols are everywhere; TV shows, movies, songs, books, etc. If any student is reading this I challenge you next time you are reading or watching TV just take a second to think to yourself if any symbols are apparent. You will be surprised with the results.