A prime example is of the colour red. When in the context of a traffic light, it means to stop! Our experience and culture has conditioned us into thinking this. Usually this means Stop!
However, these meanings can be warped from experience and the form they come in. For example, literature warps these meanings a lot. Many techniques and writing, such as similes, metaphors and other techniques can carry across a meaning very broadly or differently from what you'd expect. Some of these can be very obvious or sometimes obscure and hidden. When used, they can be powerful tools in invoking emotion from the reading, and painting a vivid picture into their imagination.
Resemblance. Association. Convention. Meaning!
Looking at one of my animations i have produced - i can give across an example of my symbolic metaphors in use.
This is a traditional 2D animation i have done using stop motion techniques. The Whole composition is made out from paper layered on top of one another for an illusion of depth.
You can find it here. http://youtu.be/MMHiunmvDsg
The main character here, the fly, is the symbolic metaphor. The Fly is my sister. Now, how is that a metaphor you might ask.... well. Consider this. A fly is a nuisance. A pest. A dirty disgusting fly. They annoy people - they follow you everywhere when you have food. People swat them, but there are loads of them and they are small and irritating. Often, they are also disgusting too. They make a pesky buzz sound too. Do you see how this might correlate to a younger sibling?
This is my symbolic metaphor.
It's not blatantly obvious, but you can make the connections if you give it some thought. The baby fly, my sister, Shannon, wants the pie. A typical, stereotypical cartoon scenario. Leaving a freshly baked pie on the window. All sorts of chaos happens. I'll leave that as a surprise for if you watch it.
But one things for certain.
There's your symbolic metaphor. A pesky, irritating baby sister! As a fly!
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