A symbol is a literary technique that uses some element of the text, usually an object, animal, number, or color, to represent a concept that is much more significant than the element itself. You can often tell if something is a symbol by how often it occurs in the text, how important it is to the plot, and/or how much it resonates with the message of the story. An important consideration, however, is that the symbolic meaning of an element can vary by culture or belief system, so one should be careful to look at the context of the symbol's use before determining what it likely represents.