1718

ESL 21a

Essay 1.2

807 words

Symbol means somethingVague that represents or suggests somethingVague else. On daily life we can always see symbols everywhere, itReference not clear is a common culture that we have. ItReference not clear is also a long history on symbol, it works from long times ago. There are many kinds of symbols. An entire nation maybe represent by using an array of symbol. A Company or a team will use a symbol to represent them. Different culture will use some rules to symbolize somethingVague.

    One kind of the functions of symbol is to represent a certain group of people by a sign. Every nation they have nation flag to represent their own country. This is a kind of symbol. The flag usually contain a meaning, no just a sign. An entire nation may be represented by an array of symbols, for example, the combat between symbolic animals, the eagle and the bear was used by political cartoonists to portray the conflict between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Besides, the political party also uses flag or sign to represent them. Also, companies use symbol to represent them. The symbol usually designed according to the company's duty, service or aim. So, the burger company will use burger as their symbol, because their job is to serve good burger to the customer. Therefore the symbol can help us to make clear image to the company that what they serve and their aims. Also, the symbol can make people remember and recognize the company easily. For McDonald, their symbol is a big yellow M with a red background. You can notice the symbol even five miles away, you know that there is a McDonald right there. If there is no symbol just the company name, you can not recognize it easily or maybe when you take a good look on it, you find that it is not McDonald, is Carl's Jr. So, it is also a main function of the symbol of company.

    Another kind of function is using a particular object to represent the whole authority or a certain position of the authority. For example, doctors, nurses, firefighters, police, they have their own uniform, that symbolize that they are belongs to these jobs. When people can know that what kind of people they are by the uniform, in order to avoid misunderstanding during their duty. This makes them easier to carry out their jobs. Individuals in position of authority are associated with a certain object to symbolize. Such as the king, is usually wearing a crown. The officeholders are represented by staff, wand, umbrella or fly whisk. One of the examples is the curved staff of the pharaoh of Egypt, King Tutankhamen.

    People will also use certain culture rule to symbolize something. The aspect of food consumption can define the social units. In most societies, the nuclear family regularly eats together is a good example. The kind of meal and the kind of food that served is related to the kinds of social link between people who eat together. Usually a regular meal is served to the relative and guests are invited to have a drink. In some Eastern culture, men eat with men and women eat with other women. Also in a special culture, marriage is symbolized by the couple's eating together for the first time, eating is to symbolizes their new status as a married couple. For some other culture rule, there is taboos against eating certain things, because the things that not allowed to eat is their totemic ancestor of a clan. There is also association between food prohibition and rank, in India, people who are in high ranked will not share food or eat from the same plate and even accept food from the low ranked people. Other than eating culture, there is also space managing culture to symbolize the social grouping and social relationship between people. In the noble family, the floor plan of the house is usually divided into spaced that were ranked, the owner would occupied the biggest sleeping room in the house, then other families lived in the remaining place. The floor plan is similar to the seating plan according to the seniority. For Thailand village, the space in house is divided by the rules about marriage. The sleeping room is the most sacred part of the house, the distant relatives are not allowed to enter the sleeping room and must stay in the guest room. But for presents, the house is separate according to the function, living room, bedroom, kitchen, laundry room.

    In conclusion, although there are many kind of symbol, the main idea is to represent a group of people by a certain sign, to symbolize the position of authority, to symbolize the social relationship and define the social group. On different time, symbols are always having different meaning, symbol is still evolving.