Symbols

Symbols may refer to illustrations or words. The words we are saying really are just nonsense sounds because we have a universal understanding of what the sound represents it is a symbol for what it represents. For example, the word 'dog' is a symbol for a four legged mammal with a tail that barks. 'dog' is meaningless to people that doesn't know English because they only recognize it as a sound. A symbol of a picture is like a heart. When people see heart, they think of love because it is generally taught that heart is a symbol of love. Someone that have never learned this concept would interpret it to other things and would often be different than what we think. Symbols come both naturally and artificially. When a country shows other countries its national flag, the flag automatically becomes a symbol for the country and people would understands this would see the flag and know it represent the country. Symbols also occur naturally, when you see a elephant stomping a man to death with absolute strength and brutality, you will find that when you see an elephant again you will think it represents strength and power. Symbols are what we see the symbol represents and it doesn't matter what the speaker or author wants the symbol to represent but to make the audience understand the symbol the same way the author did because symbols without understanding or recognition is just a concept without any meaning except for itself.