Symbolism of Light and Dark

Today I will talk about the symbolism of light and dark.

The sun and the moon. Imagine them completely in your mind. Well if you have, you’ll see that one has the exciting, happy, bright filled days, and the other has the daring, solemn, pitch black nights. Each the same in power and rule, constantly competing for time.

I chose this topic of light and dark because I’ve always loved looking and seeing the expression of good and evil. It’s like in Star Wars with the Sith and Jedi. It was always about choice and morals. I find it interesting why some are dark or light, and just how dark or light they might be.

Light and dark is usually perceived as white and black. Good and evil. They are the exact opposites, and always rivals or enemies. When you think about it like that, you would think that there would be a giant war between the good and evil then, wouldn’t you?

A white rose splattered with blood is the essence of complication, in this sense. Imagine the purest most innocent material in the world being tainted by the seemingly most vile and grotesque thing. The white rose is still a rose underneath, but the appearance is evil. This is an example of light and dark, innocent and corrupted, in the same thing. Our bloodied rose is what each human is, in one way or another. You can look at a red rose coated with a layer of snow for the opposite. The blood red color we saw as evil is being covered up by one of the most beautiful and pleasing things.

The blood can be related to what a person is, or what a person can be. Good on bad, or bad on good. That is until the blood seeps into the ivory colored flower, or the snow washes color away from the blood red rose. Then we can see where a neutral, pink flower is exposed.

If you can’t really imagine what the rose may look like, in either description, this is what I mean. *pick up picture of roses* If you think of yourself like that, covered in blood or snow, it may be a little harder to think about, but that’s what I’m really trying to get across.

Opposites of a person may be light and dark. Your opposite can never look the same, and they are always more of either good or bad. Just as every person is, in this case. No one can be black or white that is living. A person is always a shade of gray, or a different shade of a color. This shows exactly what you are through your opposite. When you look at your ‘dark’ side or ‘light’ side, you may find either your opposite or yourself.

This is as seen in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where the light and dark is very important. The main character, Link, faces his dark side, Dark Link, in the Water Temple as an adult. Dark link seems unbeatable at first, but after struggle and patience, Link finally finds his weakness and defeats his darker side, making Dark Link disappear from the room. This shows Link is the most pure kind of good through his opposite. At least, that’s what the creators made him out to be. In what I believe to be true, the only way that a person can look exactly like their darker side is to be their darker side.

*pick up picture of Dark Link and Link* As you can see from the picture, Link is nearly identical to his other self. Besides the colors, there aren’t many differences. The one thing you may notice, though, is the facial expression. Link is terrified to death by the sight and approach of Dark Link, and Dark Link doesn’t really care. He just goes on attacking with whomever’s will he finds. That is one of the few important things.

The Devil is the only thing that can be completely black, in my opinion. God, or a heavenly being, is the only thing completely white, in the same way. This is another example, as like the Legend of Zelda example, of the total opposites. A friend and I had a debate about whether a person would be just as black as the Devil if he or she sold their soul to him. It was never really settled, so I decided to add it in here. When you think of angels being as white as God, or demons being as black as the Devil, then it’s easy to see why a person would be completely dark if they sold their soul to the underworld. That makes more sense, but you can also think of it as demons and angels being separated. You can think about fallen angels and risen demons to get away from the black and white idea.

We live in a world of opposites and similarities. Sometimes it may be easy to distinguish what something is, and other times its complicated and frustrating. Like dusk and dawn, most are in between the night and day. Thank you for listening to me. Have a pleasant day.