Symbolism in ?Strange News From Another Star?Symbolism in ?Strange News From Another Star??Strange News from another Star? is found to be a story which containsnumerous symbols which in many cases contain some important, abstractinformation.
Symbolism is something which is very difficult to explaindue to the fact that not everyone sees the so mentioned symbol. Theydon’t quite see it as you, because no two minds are the same, whichimplies the fact that they don’t react equally to something which mustbe internally interpreted as it is not present as mere information. Onthis essay I will try to back up with concise words, why I believe thatsomething is representing something abstract, as well as withinformation from the author. One of the first symbols that we may find, is actually the star. Astar is known as a gaseous sphere, which with nuclear fusion and fissionmay actually give out huge amounts of energy. Obviously a star is ainhospitable place, so I believe that the star actually represents aplanet or a country.
The flowers, which have a very important part in the plot of the bookare a symbol as well. They, have always, as least as far as I know, hada special message. A message of love, tranquillity, joy and theyrepresent the harmony of nature itself. In the first stage of the book,we may see how a problem, the earthquake, has made the people in thestar loose a vast amount of flowers.
They lost some of the tranquillityand joy that had invaded their lives. And when they look for a messengerto go find flowers, they’re talking about re-finding the tranquillityand lack of fear that they wanted. I believe that the burials, actually represent life. It may sound a bitpeculiar, but in real life once you get accustomed to living a happy,joyful life, you then will not be able to live without it and so, youwill need to do practically anything, as the people in the star did, tofind the ?flowers?. The symbol of the deity that the youth saw in the temple, I understandthat by the way in which the story progresses the symbol is actuallyrepresenting the fact that war, or trouble (the bird of prey) destroysall happiness or good hearted feelings.
I think that the representationis what I mentioned above, because when the messenger ?goes? to theforeign star he sees destruction and a total lack of joy. We may find another symbol which goes from pages 55-59. It’s theconversation that the youth holds with the king who’s nation is in war. It’s apparently a symbol because even-though it has important, concreteinformation for the story, there’s more to the phrases themselves. Theycan be abstracted and that’s when I see that the conversation isactually trying to explain the way in which the humanity is beingerratic by trying to find happiness. To achieve happiness, you mustfirst get rid of sadness, poverty, trouble, etc (war is the symbol usedto represent all of them).
It may not be found just by ignoring theothers. In the king’s star they weren’t happy because all of the nounsmentioned above were present. A proof of that may be the fact that whentrouble, the earthquake, arouse in the province of the youth then theylost the peace and tranquillity, represented by the flowers that theyhad had. And ultimately I will mention the symbol which the black birdrepresents, it’s what I believe is the image of the harshness, horrorand terror of war. Which may reach such levels of futility that it mayapparently only be seen as a dream, or even more correct, would be tosay that it’s like a nightmare.
