Question

read the excerpt from \the scarlet ibis.\ there is within me (and with sadness i have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times i was mean to doodle. one day i took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die. it was covered with a film of paris green sprinkled to kill the rats, and screech owls had built a nest inside it. doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, \its not mine.\ \it is,\ i said. \and before ill help you down from the loft, youre going to have to touch it.\ what symbol is described in this excerpt, and what does it represent? the owls, which symbolize knowledge and wisdom the nest, which symbolizes home and family the rats, which symbolize cruelty and sadness the casket, which symbolizes the loss of doodle

Explanation:

In literature, symbols are used to represent deeper meanings. The casket is shown in a context where the narrator is being mean to Doodle, showing him the casket (a coffin - like box) which was prepared as they thought he would die. Doodle's denial ("It's not mine") and the narrator's insistence add to the foreboding. Owls and nests are just elements in the description of the casket's surroundings. Rats are mentioned as something the casket was treated to kill. The casket itself, being a symbol of death and in this case, the potential (and later realized) loss of Doodle, fits the literary symbol analysis.

Answer:

the casket, which symbolizes the loss of Doodle