Universal Literary Symbols. Universal symbols are symbols that nearly all people can relate to regardless of their culture, time period, gender, race, ethnicity or religious background. We relate to these symbols because we automatically make connections between the object and the concept or idea that it represents.
A symbol is a person or a concept that represents, stands for or suggests another idea, visual image, belief, action or material entity. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to convey other ideas and beliefs. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a blue line might represent a river. Numerals are symbols for numbers.
and with the info i gave you, you would be able yo under stand seeing as the "red octagon" is all over the world as a stop sign the universal symbols are used so that EVERYONE from WHERE EVER can under stand them the same way.