Essay

2009. A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Symbolism plays many roles in almost every novel. Having symbols in the novel is very important it makes the reader think more into the book and analyze it more. Symbolism can turn something into a total different thing then what it was to being with. You might think that something is just one thing until you realize the symbolism in it and it makes you think. In No Country for Old Men one of the symbols is a coin.  Anton Chigurh uses this coin in the novel to decide your destiny, whether you are going to live or be killed.

How this symbol functions in the work is very simple. This novel is about a drug deal gone wrong. The coin toss represents chance a random chance at that. A simple coin deciding your fate, a fifty/fifty chance of life. In this book the characters take a lot of chances and they have to deal with a ton of really bad luck. It really reveals a lot about Anton and what kind of person he is. He is a hired hit man to bring back the money from the drug deal. So, he is not the greatest guy in the world to begin with he kills people just because. Then to top it off he uses a coin to decide their fate.

Expressing an idea is what this symbol of the coin toss is doing in the novel No Country for Old Men. The main idea in this novel is evil and greed, and violence. All these main ideas are having something to do with chance and bad luck, like its bad luck that the drug deal went bad, and it’s a crazy chance that you are going to find 2.4 million dollars in a satchel. The coin and the coin toss itself could possibly symbolize a lot of different things in this novel. From the bad luck some of the characters have to the great chances of something great happening to some of the characters.

All in all, the coin symbolizes chance and bad luck. Symbolism is used quite often in novels and plays and movies, it just helps with the depth of the novel. Makes the readers understand where the author is coming from and what he was trying to get across when he said this, or that. Sometimes the author doesn’t just write that something happened just to make the story more exciting it happens for a reason, and symbolism is a great way to show that.