Literature help: What is the difference between “Symbolism”, and “Thematic Elements”, as far as a movie, or book is concerned? - Help.com



This post left anonymously

What is the difference between “Symbolism”, and “Thematic Elements”, as far as a movie, or book is concerned?

I know thematic elements are used to help rate movies, but i believe there is another, sort of literary meaning for the word as well. I looked up the definition, and it came up as “The tools an author uses to tell a story and get his or her message across are called Thematic Elements. Used alone or in conjunction with others, these literary terms refer to the devices which help the author to keep the story entertaining while adding depth and meaning to the work”. That’s fine and dandy, but that sounds like it can fall under symbolism, as well… Is there any difference?

This open post was written 9 months, 1 week ago | V/U/S: 956, 2, 2 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


Reciprocity (0) Reciprocation Failure -- The poster has NOT helped anyone else yet!

Since writing this post Anonymous may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days.

Post Tags (3)

Literature, Symbolism, Comparative (How Tags Affect Reciprocity)

Replies (2)

Where were you?

Click and drag to move the map around. FAQ: How we place people on this map »
You can also watch events on Help.com as they happen
Mouse over the map for 2 seconds to see an expanded, interactive view

puppimaude offline Verified User (9 months, 1 week) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 9 months, 1 week ago (46 minutes after post)

Thematic elements are story lines that tend to underline a theme. For example; a book may contain the theme of “unrequited love”, and a candle that goes out is a symbol of that. Or it may have a theme of “selfishness will always hurt the person who is selfish”, and the author may have the selfish character hold something very greedily in his hands and it breaks, cuts him and he suffers. The broken item is symbolic of the selfishness theme. Additionally, the author may show us the same item in another context, meaning, that selfishness about to be punished is here also. Something like that. Hope this helps. One of the themes of Christianity is that Christ died for our salvation. As a symbol of that, Catholic people eat a wafer and drink a lttle wine to symbolize the blood and flesh of Jesus. Americans put their hands over their hearts to symbolize their patriotism.

This has been marked as a favorite reply 1 times. (1) Quote this reply Report this reply to moderators
Help me with: After about 6 tries, I’m still unable to register with Yahoo.
Anonymous #
9 months, 1 week ago (3 hours, 32 minutes after post)

This helps me a ton!
Thanks!!

:D

That basically sets me on everything. Very good description. My Literature classes aren’t really teaching me anything, anymore it seems, and i need to do this research myself… haha. What ever.

Thanks Again!

Quote this reply Report this reply to moderators

Invite Others to Help

A logged in and verified Help.com member has the ability to setup a Friends List and invite others to help with posts.