Years ago, Sister Mary Corita Kent, a famous artist and educator of the 1960s and 1970s, said: “A painting is a symbol for the universe. Inside, each room is related to the other. Each piece is only responsible to the rest of this little world. So probably in the total universe there is this kind of total harmony, but we only get little glimpses of it” (Lewis “Quotes by Women Artists”). Nowadays, painting is not the main art form that humans enjoy. In fact, literature of all kinds can be considered a different art form and symbols are often found within it. A “symbol” is an object, person, or action that represents an abstract idea (Warren “English 102”). In literature, a symbol or set of symbols can have a wide range of meanings. For example, color is a universal symbol; some would say it is a general symbol of life. However, each color separately can symbolize something different depending on the context. By analyzing the symbolism of five literary works, one will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the symbols. To begin, Charlotte Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," uses deteriorated wallpaper to represent the narrator's failing mind. The narrator suffers and is locked up in an uncomfortable house, in a room she did not choose; she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in the room. As the yellow wallpaper represents the mind of the narrator, the statement made by the narrator: “The color is repulsive, almost revolting; an impure, smoldering yellow, strangely discolored by the slowly rotating sunlight. It is a dull but sinister orange in some places, a sickly sulfur hue in others” refers to the state of his mind by suggesting that his state is revolting and impure. It disappears in the middle of the paper... what could these five pieces of literature have in common?' The answer to this question is very simple, these pieces of literature each have symbolic colors that represent something different. Yellow wallpaper represents a deteriorating mind, a shabby black box represents a gruesome, sacrificial death, green is the physical representation of power and wealth in society, a mixture of blue and yellow represents the confusion of 'a clear sky with dead grass and "blue". Roses and Blue Mountain represent the desire a person feels for something they can never have. Perhaps a pain is not the only symbol of the universe. Perhaps each literary work is related to one another in such a way that by reading each literary work one can relate the different symbols an author chooses to use and recognize the complex harmony that binds the literary world together..