Metaphor & Figuration
Symbol
A concrete thing that carries meanings beyond itself, gathering more each time it returns. Unlike allegory's one-to-one code, a live symbol never runs out: the green light is longing, the future, money, America — and none of these exactly.
The green light at the end of Daisy's dock — Gatsby
Don't confuse it with Metaphor. Allegory fixes the correspondence; metaphor asserts it locally in one sentence. A symbol earns its meanings by recurrence.
In the Reader — 1 excerpt
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes
The rest of the family
Metaphor Simile Catachresis Metonymy Synecdoche Personification Prosopopoeia Pathetic Fallacy Transferred Epithet / Hypallage Metalepsis Allusion Mythopoesis