For every word that is said, and action that is done, there is meaning within. Whether being small and simplistic, or complicated and in-depth, everything does have meaning. In literature, the term used to describe symbolic meaning, is significant particular. For example, if Bob, from a middle class family, were to walk the streets of south central LA one night, and came across a couple of gang-bangers, and they say to him, “hey man, those are some nice shoes you got on”. The gang-bangers are not giving Bob a compliment. This is an example of a significant particular. The gang-bangers symbolic meaning in what they said to Bob is; give us your shoes before we kill you. In most cases significant particulars are hard to see or hear, but as like in Bob’s case, they can be right in the open and easy to tell. This is the basic concept of a significant particular. Many times significant particulars will be read over, and not looked into by the reader. I have picked out actions, and phrases from; A & P, A Rose for Emily, The Great Gatsby, and Othello, these which all have symbolic meaning. By giving examples from these four pieces of literature, I intend to illustrate the concept of the “significant particular” in literature. Hartmann 2 John Updike, the author of A & P, likes to put a tremendous amount of detail into his short stories. The story A & P is that of young boy named Sammy who works at the register of a grocery store. One day while Sammy is ringing up a an older women, one that watches the register, just waiting for the cashier to make a mistake, he spots three girls walking near the bread aisle. While watching one of the girls, he realizes that “she came down a little hard on her heals, as if she didn’t walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heals and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step, putting a little del...
