SYMBOLISM

• A person, place, action, word, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself.

• What are some well known symbols used today?

So why use symbolism?• Symbols can be very powerful and emotive • Symbols such as flags can evoke strong emotions such as

patriotism• Other symbols can provoke anger, hatred and fear e.g. Nazi

symbolism. • Symbols can be far more forceful than words and can convey a

meaning or idea more effectively, especially when used as a metaphor.

Symbolism in The 10pm Question

Uncle G – Penguin or pheasant “big and noble” / “Emperor, king...”

Louie – sparrow “pecking, bobbing, chirping and chatting, on the go and on the make”

Alma – Pelican “all the chins”

Nellie- Great auk “massive and slow moving”

Sydney- Parakeet/woodpecker “small, brightly coloured and very insisted”

Ma – Yellow throated warbler “made their nests in dense undergrowth, hidden from the world” / Canary “doesn’t sing

much, doesn’t sing at all” “A caged bird, one whose wings have been clipped, really pretty but a bit sad”.

Gordana- crane “Gordana had long legs; and she could just stand there, staring off, ignoring you.

louie

• “And then it came to Frankie what Louie was reminding him of. Himself, him, Frankie. Himself babbling away to Sydney, going on and on about the aunties that day, trying desperately to fill the air between them with words, any words to summon up a cloud of words, and words, to summon up a cloud of words so big it shut out the intensity of her focus, deflected her questions about his times at the aunties’ house, her inevitable question about Ma.” pg. 113

• “..he had not once in his twelve years ever had a conversation with Louie about Ma”. Pg. 114

• Louie is handling the Ma situation in exactly the same way Frankie does. It obviously worries him, stresses him out (he gets very flustered when Frankie brings it up, behaves exactly the same as Frankie did when Sydney was asking questions.)

• Perhaps Louie worries about Ma just as much as Frankie does? • The fact that Frankie and Louie have never discussed Ma’s

issues highlights exactly how the Parsons handle their problems, they don’t!

• Their solution is to bottle it up, pretend its not there and move on with life.

• Is this strategy working for Frankie?

• Was caught shop lifting from the super market • Was caught wagging school, went through a

delinquent stage • Lied to his parents about his delivery service

(hired the motor head brothers to do the deliveries for him)

• These are all examples of Louie acting out, is this due to Ma’s condition? Was Louie crying out for help?