Symbol

A symbol is any object in a text which is granted greater meaning beyond its first literal reading by its context. The symbol is the relationship between the object and the impression the context provides, and relationship can come in many forms from how the object relates to another object: like with facsimile (replacement) or synecdoche (a part representing the whole); to how the impressions provided by the context are meant to be interpreted: direct, indirect, antithetical, indirect antithetical.

The relationship of the object and its impressions, when taken as a whole, is the symbol: