Literary
Terms
Allegory
An allegory is a story within a story. It has
a “surface story” and another story hidden underneath. For example, the surface
story might be about two neighbors throwing rocks at each other’s homes, but
the hidden story would be about war between countries. Some allegories are very
subtle, while others can be more obvious.
In most allegories, the hidden story has something to do with complex subjects that are difficult to understand directly. Many authors translate the complex subjects into allegories, which are easier to understand and more fun to read.
Allegories
are always rich in symbolism. That is, nearly everything in them stands for
something else: each character can represent a historical figure, a
philosophical idea, or an aspect of human psychology, etc. Most stories have
this kind of symbolism here and there, but it is extremely used in allegories. It’s
important to remember that while allegory is dependent upon symbolism, the
presence of symbols in a literary work does not make it an allegory. Symbolism
is essential to allegory, but it can also be found in any literary work that is
not considered an allegory.
Allegory vs Metaphor
Although it seems that allegory and metaphor are similar, they are entirely different from each other. Whereas an allegory is a complete story told either in verse or in prose, a metaphor is a small figure of speech. An allegory presents parallelism of human life on a wider scale as compared to a metaphor that presents the same on a smaller scale, mostly a single sentence. Also, an allegory is meant to teach a moral lesson or outline a lesson for the people, while a metaphor does not stipulate such a lesson. An allegory could have several metaphors when describing a character, a metaphor does not become an allegory. It is just a linguistic feature of the prose used to describe something or a person.
Types of Allegory
There
are four major types of allegories.
Classical
allegory: Allegorical stories told in the classical Grecian times
about animals and other things to demonstrate human existence and teach the
people a lesson. One of the best examples is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Biblical
allegory: Biblical allegories show stories used in the Bible to
convey Christian teachings. These stories often evoke Biblical themes such as
the conflict between evil and good.
Medieval
allegory: This type of allegories presents stories such as the
unity of Christianity
Modern allegory: Modern allegories include stories of animals and birds to depict modern themes such as The Chronicles of Narnia and Animal Farm.
Examples:
The
Scorpion by Paul Bowles
This
is the story of an old lady who is marooned in a cave away from the town
whereas her sons left her. An old man tried to take her with him but she
refused and dreamed of the town when she suddenly woke up with the scorpion in
her mouth and her son calling from outside.
The
Dumb Man by Sherwood Anderson
This
story comprises three characters, a reluctant narrator, and a woman upstairs
with a newly arrived fourth man. The gist of the story is Anderson’s thesis on
how a man could be happy at the same place when the other one is sad.
Young
Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
This
story revolves around the journey of a young man, Goodman Brown, to the devil
to talk to him and meet with several pious people on the way which opens his
eyes that virtue is not as he has seen but what actually exists.
George
Orwell’s Animal Farm
George
Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of literature’s most famous allegories. The surface
story is about a group of farm animals who rise up, kick out the humans, and
try to run the farm themselves. The hidden story, however, is about the Russian
Revolution, and each of the characters represents some figure from that revolution.
The pigs represent Communist leaders like Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky, the dogs
represent the KGB, the humans represent capitalists, the horses represent the
working class, etc.
Seuss’
The Sneetches
Seuss wrote The Sneetches as an allegory for racism and other forms of prejudice. The story is all about creatures who are treated as inferior because they don’t have stars on their bellies. It is written in a child-friendly, playful style, but it still contains an important political message.
The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
And
some in dreams assurèd were
Of
the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine
fathom deep he had followed us
From
the land of mist and snow.
And
every tongue, through utter drought,
Was
withered at the root;
We
could not speak, no more than if
We
had been choked with soot.
Ah!
well a-day! what evil looks
Had
I from old and young!
Instead
of the cross, the Albatross
About
my neck was hung.
In Coleridge’s poem, an “ancient” mariner appears and stops a wedding guest from attending a matrimonial celebration. The old man begins a story of a ship and its crew. During the story, as the three stanzas indicate, the mariner describes how the Albatross he has killed has brought misfortune upon himself and everyone aboard the ship. This poem is an allegory on many levels, but particularly reflects the fall of man and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas as symbolized by the death of the Albatross. Coleridge sets forth in his poem, not just the mariner’s surface story, but underlying narratives of sin and redemption.
There are two forms of Biblical allegory:
I.
One that refers to allegorical
interpretations of the Bible, rather than literal interpretations, including
parables;
II.
A literary work that invokes Biblical
themes such as the struggle between good and evil.
Examples
of Biblical allegory:
The
Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
The
Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
The
Prodigal Son (parable from the Bible)
The
Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan)
The
Adventures of Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi)
The
Good Samaritan (parable from the Bible)
The
Baggage Handler (David Rawlings)
Hinds’
Feet on High Places (Hannah Hunnard)
The
Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)
Goblin
Market (Christina Rossetti)
The
most common examples of allegory are fables. A fable is considered a short
allegory featuring anthropomorphic characters such as animals or other
non-human characters that behave like humans and have human characteristics.
Fables,
in general, feature an overt moral lesson or rule of behavior as part of the
story, and fable characters often stand for abstract ideals. Like all allegory,
fables work as standalone (or surface) narratives while also providing an
instructive narrative lesson about behavior and/or values.
Examples
of Fables:
The
lion and the mouse
The
tortoise and the hare
The
city mouse and the country mouse
The
fox and the grapes
The
grasshopper and the ants
The
wolf in sheep’s clothing
The
fox and the crow
The
little red hen
The
hare and his ears
The
shepherd and the wolf
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