Definitions
An indirect reference to a person, story, or event in this famous religious text.
What is biblical allusion?
This text has a continuous Biblical allusion where this character as a Jesus figure is killed by group of boys who succumb to their wild side. This shows the danger of surrendering goodness to evil.
Who is the Jesus figure, Simon, in Lord of the Flies?
In this famous speech, the speaker alludes to this influential text: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low..."
What is the Biblical allusion to Isaiah 40 in "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr.?
An indirect reference to a person, event, or storyline from another piece of work.
What is literary allusion?
A couple in a popular movie alludes to Shakespeare with its “star-crossed lovers” trope in order to convey the hopelessness and inevitable deathly end of a relationship between two sick teenagers.
What is the relationship between Stella and Will in Five Feet Apart?
In this novel, the author makes an allusion to an infamous story: "In this way the moons and the seasons passed. And then the locusts came."
What is the allusion to the story of the Egyptian Plagues to describe Christian missionaries coming to Africa in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe?
An indirect reference to a significant person, idea, event, topic, or place in the past.
What is a historical allusion?
This popular phrase is used when describing one’s fatal flaw or weakness in order to convey how this weakness could ruin everything despite their other strengths.
What is the phrase “Achilles heel”?
In this novel, two types of allusion are used when Ponyboy recites Robert Frost’s poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” to Johnny.
Later, as he lays dying, Johnny tells Ponyboy to “stay gold,” referring to that scene earlier in the book.
What is an example of an external and internal allusion in The Outsiders?
An indirect reference to a person, thing, or event specific to an ethnic group.
What is a cultural allusion?
This time period is alluded to in this novel to better emphasize the “American Dream” and “pursuit of wealth” within society.
What is the “the Roaring 20’s” in The Great Gatsby?
In this poem, the author makes an allusion to another famous author:
“All overgrown by cunning moss,
All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.”
What is the historical allusion to Charlotte Brontë in "All Overgrown by Cunning Moss" by Emily Dickinson?