the.com/symbolism
the art of meaning more than you said, while saying less than you meant
means The practice of using objects, images, or actions to represent ideas beyond their literal selves, especially as an artistic and literary movement that favored suggestion over plain statement.
from From Greek 'symbolon,' a 'token' or 'sign' — literally something 'thrown together' (syn- 'together' + ballein 'to throw'). The original symbolon was a physical thing: a coin or tile snapped in two, each party keeping a half, so that fitting the pieces later proved a bond. The word for that broken token grew into the word for anything that stands in for a larger whole. 'Symbolism' as the name of an art movement is a 19th-century coinage, when poets and painters embraced the half-said and the suggested.
- french origins
- Born as a 1880s revolt against blunt realism
- green light
- Gatsby's whole longing fits in one bulb
- dream logic
- Freud read everyday objects like coded confessions
- color codes
- Red means danger, love, or revolution depending on culture
- flag math
- Stars, stripes, crescents: nations compressed into fabric
white dove — represents peace across cultures, from ancient greece to modern peace movements
swastika — ancient hindu and buddhist symbol of auspiciousness, repurposed as nazi hate symbol 1920s-1945
bald eagle — official u.s. national bird and symbol since 1782, appears on great seal
red rose — symbol of love and romance in western culture, red rose day celebrated february 7