I chose a four leaf clover to represent me. This symbol in many ways shows who I am as a person and expresses my past. To some people this is just a four leaf clover. They are found in green grasses in the spring time but after picked and considered lucky they are usually thrown to the ground.
This icon is very special to me for a few reasons. I have a very strong Irish background and I am proud of where my ancestors came from many years ago. Another reason this icon represents me is because I was born on St. Patrick’s Day which is the day we celebrate the Irish decent. I believe it was gift that I was born on such a great day. My name is Jillian Patricia which is an extremely Irish name. The four leaf clover symbolizes me because my favorite color is green. When I was younger I thought all the green decorations on my birthday were for me, not realizing there was a national holiday going on at the same time. Green was always my favorite color and always will be.
Lastly, I have four people in my immediate family. This includes my mom, dad, sister, and me. I feel that each clove on the four leaf clover represents each of my family members. I think it is special how all the cloves face into the middle almost looking like four hearts, and they all come together at the end with one stem. It makes me believe that even though each of my family members including myself are all very busy, and we each have our own lives we still always come back to the center just like the cloves do with the stem. We have a unique family bond that is as rare as finding an actual four leaf clover on a grassy hill. I believe that a four leaf clover icon will always represent who I am because there are so many significant meanings behind it. Seeing a four leaf clover makes me happy because it reminds me of where I came from.
In class we discussed Peirce’s 3 types of signs. A four leaf clover would be indexical because as a nation we know what a four leaf clover looks like and it was made by what it represents. In my mind it is symbolic because it represents something special to me. Now that we learned about vision and the eye it is interesting to think about how an icon such as a four leaf clover can represent a million different things depending on the person. I find that intriguing and I never even thought about that until this class.
Jillian -- this is a nicely structured essay. Be careful about spelling -- I think you want to say that on St. Patrick's Day we celebrate people of Irish descent, not "decent." (Two different things!) Also, according to Peirce's three categories, the shamrock you've chosen (which is actually different than a four leaf clover, but that's getting into picky details) is a SYMBOL...it is DEFINITELY not indexical according to his system because in this categorization system, an indexical sign is made by what it represents (i.e. smoke/fire, footprints/foot, photo/light waves).
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