"Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold
standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of
labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross
of gold."

William Jennings Bryan at the Democratic National
Convention, 1896
The quotation above is from an 1896 speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan, in which he was protesting the adoption of a strict gold standard in the
United States, which could severely limit the national money supply Bryan's reference to a "cross of gold" is best referred to as which of the following
selections?

A. bias
B. literal language
C. symbolism
D. propaganda