Flight Essay, Research Paper

In his classic short story, "Flight," John Steinbeck uses many

examples of symbolism to foreshadow the conclusion. Symbolism can be anything, a

person, place or thing, used to portray something beyond itself. It is used to

represent or foreshadow the ending of the story. Steinbeck uses colors,

direction, and nature symbolism to help presage Pep?’s tragic death. Let us now

more closely examine the ways that Steinbeck uses colors to foreshadow the

ending of his short story. Perhaps the most repeatedly used symbol in

"Flight," is the color black. In literature many authors use black to

represent death. There are numerous examples in this short story. Some of these

include the black handle on the long blade, Pep?’s black hair and the black

jerky. Another example may be found when Pep? puts on his fathers black coat,

which represents death. When Pep? puts on the coat he is literally covering

himself with death. Another fine example is the trail in which Pep? travels.

Steinbeck describes the path as a well-worn black path. By traveling on this

path he is in fact taking the road of death. Furthermore Pep?’s appearance also

helps foreshadow the ending. Steinbeck describes him as having a black hat that

covers his black thatched hair. Pep? is also described as being dark, lean and

tall. Another example is Pep?’s shack. The shack is described as weathered and

very old. It casts a rather large shadow to the North east. The darkness of the

shadow symbolizes death in the home. As we can readily see, the authors use of

black symbolism in the story tells us that the main character, Pep?, is

impending death. Another commonly used symbol in the story "Flight,"

is direction. Direction is used to represent positive or negative effects. North

and East are generally "good" directions. Many people feel this came

about when the early man saw the sun rise in the East. On the contrary, the

directions South and West are generally "bad" directions. Basically

this is because the sun sets in the West. Besides compass directions, height is

also a very popular way of foreshadowing the conclusion of the story. The

direction up, which is also the way to heaven is generally "good,"

while down, the direction of hell, is considered to be "bad." An

example of this form of symbolism can be found when Pep? is returning home. Pep?

looks at his "weathered little shack" and notices the shadow. The

shadow is heading in the direction North East. Even though the directions North

and East are "good," the fact that the shadow is there turns them

"bad." This means that evil is winning over goodness. So, whichever

direction Pep? turns to he will fall into evil. Another fine example is when

Pep? watches the sun set in the West. The sun, which is the bringer of all life

is moving towards evil. That means it will be dark out and Pep?’s death is soon

to come. Steinbeck further uses this symbolism while describing the tops of the

trees on the mountain. The tops of the trees were wind-bitten and dead. This

symbolizes that the further Pep? travels up the mountain the closer he is to

his inevitable death. As shown above, direction is another very important aspect

of symbolism. Direction is just another of the many ways John Steinbeck

accomplishes his foreshadowing of the ending of his story. Let us now look

further into symbolism by discovering yet another form of symbolism. Throughout

the story Steinbeck emphasizes nature symbolism. Nature symbolism includes a

variety of things. One very popular symbol is water. Because of the fact that

we, as humans, require water in order to live, water represents life. An example

of this in the story "Flight," would be Pep?’s water bag that he hung

over his horse’s shoulder. The water leaked onto the horse’s shoulder. This

meant Pep?’s life was actually leaking away. It just so happened that when the

horse was shot it was in the same shoulder. The most obvious example of nature

symbolism would be when Pep? is traveling up the mountain. When he first starts

out he is traveling very close to the river. As he continues with his journey,

the path in which he travels has the tendency to turn more and more away from

the river. In reality this means Pep? is moving further away from life and

closer to his inevitable death. These are just a couple of situations in the

story "Flight" that help the reader catch a glimpse of the ending of

the story. As we can clearly see, John Steinbeck has used many techniques and

examples of symbolism to help portray the ending of the short story,

"Flight." Some of these examples include colors, direction, and

nature. The color black, which is the universal symbol of death, is used to help

foreshadow Pep?’s inevitable death. Direction is used frequently in the story

to symbolize the direction that Pep? is heading; if he is heading towards good

or evil. Nature, especially water, is another form of symbolism that Steinbeck

utilizes. Water equals life. Therefore when Pep? moves further and further away

from the river, he is actually moving closer to his death. Thus, it is

intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that Pep? was destined to die

right from the beginning of the story.