ALLUSION
DEFINITION:
• An ALLUSION is a reference to a famous person,
historical moment, literary text, or pop culture
event/person/thing. In a broad sense—it is a
reference to something that is (or should be)
culturally known.
• ALLUSIONS are used in literature all the time to help
make cultural connections to the reader as well as
to ‘say a lot’ with fewer words.
TYPES OF ALLUSIONS
• Mythology: Achilles‘ Heel, Cupid, Pandora’s Box
• Biblical: Cain and Abel, Good Samaritan, Forbidden
Fruit
• Literature: Scrooge, Jekyll and Hyde, Romeo
• Historical: Benedict Arnold, Utopia, Nazi
PURPOSE?
• Allusions Culturally Connect Us!
• If we do not understand an allusion we cannot
understand the author.
EXAMPLES: WHAT IS BEING SAID
THROUGH THESE ALLUSIONS?
• "Sea of the Rivers of Story" is the English equivalent of
Kathāsaritsāgara, the title of an 11th-century collection
of Indian legends.
• Another obvious reference is to the stories of One
Thousand and One Nights. Haroun, the son of Rashid
Khalifa refers to Harun al-Rashid, a caliph who ruled from
786 to 809 and who features frequently in Thousand and
One Nights stories.
• The Walrus plays off of The Beatles song, "I am the
Walrus".
• Haroun encounters a warrior who is fighting his own
shadow. This is possible a reference to J.M Barrie's Peter
Pan.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
• The Walrus
• The Pages as compared to the
Queen and her Court (cards) ~
both are extended metaphors
used in similar ways
• The Language of wordplay, puns,
and seeming nonsense.
• Time, especially time stopped
(The Mad Tea Party and the wordplay involving time).
THEY WANT EFX
• What allusions must you recognize in order to
understand the song?
• What is Das Efx’s (the rapper) purpose? What is
trying to say though these allusions?
THE TWILIGHT STRIP
• The Twilight Zone
• In pairs, discuss the history of The Gaza Strip. How
does this influence your understanding of The
Twilight Strip? What is Rushdie saying through this
allusion?
SOUND FAMILIAR?
• Jimmy Cross (JC), suffers for the sake of the entire
platoon.
• Cross bears the grief of Lavender’s death for the
members of his troop.
• Cross makes a sacrifice so that his fellow men—
Norman Bowker and Kiowa, in this case—can carry
on without being crippled by grief and guilt.
JIMMY CROSS AS A CHRIST FIGURE?
• Jimmy Cross (JC)is in charge of and
watches over a group of men, similar to
Jesus and his apostles
• Jimmy Cross suffers for his platoon, similar
to Jesus suffering for his disciplines, and all
of mankind.
• The only characters that are directly
identified as friends of Jesus in the Gospel
of John are Martha, Mary, and Lazarus:
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus.” John 11:5
• Why might O’Brien be comparing Cross to
Christ? What is being said about Cross?