NAME:________________________________________________
PERIOD:_________________
Allegory, Symbolism, & Satire (CP)
1. Symbolism: Use of an ordinary object, event, person or animal in which the author has attached
extraordinary meaning or significance.
What do these common symbols represent:
 a snake:
 an owl:
 a white flag:
2. Allegory: a story in which characters, settings, and actions represent something larger.
3. Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or
vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Agenda:
1.
noun
a list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting: the question of nuclear weapons had been removed
from the agenda
2. a plan of things to be done or problems to be addressed: he vowed to put jobs at the top of his agenda
3. the underlying intentions or motives of a particular person or group: Miller has his own agenda and it
has nothing to do with football
VOCABULARY: Based on the definition of the word agenda, what do you believe the following words mean?
1. Political agenda: ____________________________________________________________________
2. Social agenda:_______________________________________________________________________
3. Religious agenda:____________________________________________________________________
4. Moral agenda:_______________________________________________________________________
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1. Explain what is being ridiculed in the cartoon.
What does the cartoonist see as wrong, or in need of criticism?
A.
2. What is the social commentary of the piece?
Is the agenda social or political?
3. What METHODS of satire does the cartoonist use (exaggeration, mockery, sarcasm)?
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B.
1. Explain what is being ridiculed in the cartoon. What does the cartoonist see as wrong, or in need of criticism?
2. What is the social commentary of the piece? Is the agenda social or political?
3. What METHODS of satire does the cartoonist use (exaggeration, mockery, sarcasm)?
C.
1. Explain what is being ridiculed in the cartoon. What does the cartoonist see as wrong, or in need of criticism?
2. What is the social commentary of the piece? Is the agenda social or political?
3. What METHODS of satire does the cartoonist use (exaggeration, mockery, sarcasm)?
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A. Symbolism: “Emancipation: A Life Fable” by Kate Chopin- Kate Chopin was an American
author of short stories and novels. From 1889 to 1902, she wrote short stories for both children and
adults. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.
a. Vocabulary- Use each word in a sentence
1. Confining: restricting, restraining
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2. Throve: to grow well
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3. Flanks: the part of the animal between the rib and hip
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4. Slothful: the state of being lazy
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5. Dread: to fear something to the point of wanting to avoid it.
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6. Unaccustomed: not usual; not a habit
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7. Waxing: increasing in size
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8. Heedless: without a care, thoughtless
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9. Noxious: physically harmful
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B. Background Knowledge: Before the year 1929, women in American did not have the right to vote or own their
own property. Women were not expected to work to make their own money, but only to stay home and take
care of the house and children. In the late 1800s, men and women began organizing to fight for women’s rights;
this was called Women’s Suffrage. Some women were actually against Suffrage. These women believed that
women should not bother with the hardships of working and voting, but rather stay at home and allow the men
of society to take care of them.
C. Close Read: As you read the story, “Emancipation A Life Fable,” circle any object, character, or event, that you
believe might be a symbol. Then write in the margins what, based on the background knowledge, you believe is
being symbolized by those objects, characters, and events.
There was once an animal born into this world, and opening his eyes
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upon Life, he saw above and about him confining walls, and before
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him were bars of iron through which came air and light from without;
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this animal was born in a cage.
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Here he grew, and throve in strength and beauty under the care
of an invisible protecting hand. Hungering, food was ever at
hand. When he thirsted water was brought, and when he felt the
need to rest, there was provided a bed of straw upon which to lie;
and here he found it good, licking his handsome flanks, to bask
in the sun beam that he thought existed but to lighten his home.
Awaking one day from his slothful rest, lo! the door of his cage
stood open: accident had opened it. In the corner he crouched,
wondering and fearingly. Then slowly did he approach the door,
dreading the unaccustomed, and would have closed it, but for
such a task his limbs were purposeless. So out the opening he
thrust his head, to see the canopy of the sky grow broader, and
the world waxing wider.
Back to his corner but not to rest, for the spell of the Unknown
was over him, and again and again he goes to the open door,
seeing each time more Light.
Then one time standing in the flood of it; a deep in-drawn breath
– a bracing of strong limbs, and with a bound he was gone.
On he rushes, in his mad flight, heedless that he is wounding and
tearing his sleek sides – seeing, smelling, touching of all things;
even stopping to put his lips to the noxious pool, thinking it may
be sweet.
Hungering there is no food but such as he must seek and ofttimes
fight for; and his limbs are weighted before he reaches the water
that is good to his thirsting throat.
So does he live, seeking, finding, joying and suffering. The door
which accident had opened is opened still, but the cage remains
forever empty!
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D. Answer the questions below about the short story “Emancipation: A Life Fable”
1. Summarize the literal events of the short story:
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2. Analyze the allegory of the story, by determining the symbolism of the following:
a. the animal: ______________________________________________________________________
b. the cage:________________________________________________________________________
c. invisible protecting hand: __________________________________________________________
d. the open cage door: ______________________________________________________________
e. the animal leaving the cage: ________________________________________________________
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f. the wounds and tears on the animal’s sides after leaving the cage: _________________________
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g. the cage forever empty: ___________________________________________________________
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3. What is the social commentary of the short story? ________________________________________
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4. Is the author’s agenda social or political? _______________________________________________
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B. Allegory: “Golden Kite, Silver Wind” In 1949, the Soviet Union (Russia) successfully built an
atomic bomb, which ended the United States’ monopoly on atomic weapons. As time went on, the two
nations began a “race” to build up a huge arsenal of deadly weapons, each attempting to out-do the
other country. The “Cold War” created an ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation that had a
great impact on the daily lives of the American people. People built bomb shelters in their backyards,
schools and other public places practiced bomb drills, and Americans lived in daily fear. In 1972,
President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty (SALT I), which banned the manufacture of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step
toward reducing the threat of nuclear war.
a. Vocabulary- Read the definition of each word, then use all eleven words in a short story about any
topic you wish.
1. Lurk: to wait in a secret or hidden place
especially in order to do something wrong or
harmful.
5. Immense: very big in size or amount
6. Ravenous: very eager or greedy for food or
satisfaction.
7. Bludgeon: a heavy stick that usually has one
thick end and is used as a weapon
2. Prosper: to become very successful usually by
making a lot of money, or to become very active,
healthy, or strong.
3. Linger: to stay somewhere beyond the usual or
expected time
4. Hysteria: a situation in which people behave or
react in an uncontrolled way because of fear,
anger, or another strong emotion.
8. Pandemonium: chaos, wild uproar
9. Spurn: to reject
10. Quench: to put out the light or fire of
11. Magnificent: exceptionally fine
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b. Close Read: Read the short story “Golden Kite, Silver Wind” and answer all questions.
“The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind”
By Ray Bradbury ~ 1953
"In the shape of a pig?' cried the Mandarin.
"In the shape of a pig," said the messenger, and departed.
"Oh, what an evil day in an evil year," cried the Mandarin.
"The town of Kwan-Si, beyond the hill, was very small in my
childhood. Now it has grown so large that at last they are building a
wall."
"But why should a wall two miles away make my good father sad and
angry all within the hour?" asked his daughter quietly.
"They build their wall," said the Mandarin, "in the shape of a pig! Do
you see? Our own city wall is built in the shape of an orange. Thai
pig will devour us, greedily!"
They both sat thinking.
Life was full of symbols and omens. Demons lurked everywhere.
Death swam in the wetness of an eye, the turn of a gull's wing meant
rain, a fan held so, the tilt of a roof, and, yes, even a city wall was of
immense importance. Travelers and tourists, caravans, musicians,
artists, coming upon these two towns, equally judging the portents,
would say, "The city shaped like an orange! No! I will enter the city
shaped like a pig and prosper, eating all, growing fat with good luck
and prosperity!"
The Mandarin wept. "All is lost! These symbols and signs terrify. Our
city will come on evil days."
"Then," said the daughter, "call in your stone-masons and temple
builders. I will whisper from behind the silken screen and you will
know the words."
The old man clapped his hands despairingly. "Ho, stone-masons!
Ho, builders of towns and palaces!"
The men who knew marble and granite and onyx and quartz came
quickly. The Mandarin faced them most uneasily, himself waiting for
a whisper from the silken screen behind his throne. At last the
whisper came.
"I have called you here," said the whisper.
"I have called you here," said the Mandarin aloud, “because our city
is shaped like an orange, and the vile city of Kwan-Si has this day
shaped theirs like a ravenous pig -"
Here the stone-masons groaned and wept. Death rattled his cane in
the outer courtyard. Poverty made a sound like a wet cough in the
shadows of the room.
What news does the messenger
bring to Mandarin? How does
Mandarin react to this news?
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What does The Mandarin predict
will happen to the city because of
the wall shaped like a pig?
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What is the main emotion the
Mandarin feels toward the wall?
Cite examples from the passage to
prove your answer:
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What type of figurative language
is used here? What point does this
make about poverty?
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"And so," said the whisper, said the Mandarin, "you raisers of walls
must go bearing trowels and rocks and change the shape of our
city!"
The architects and masons gasped. The Mandarin himself gasped at
what he had said. The whisper whispered. The Mandarin went on:
"And you will change our walls into a club which may beat the pig
and drive it off!"
The stone-masons rose up, shouting. Even the Mandarin, delighted
at the words from his mouth, applauded, stood down from his
throne. "Quick!" he cried. "To work!"
When his men had gone, smiling and bustling, the Mandarin turned
with great love to the silken screen. "Daughter," he whispered, "I
will embrace you." There was no reply. He stepped around the
screen, and she was gone.
Such modesty, he thought. She has slipped away and left me with a
triumph, as if it were mine.
The news spread through the city; the Mandarin was acclaimed.
Everyone carried stone to the walls. Fireworks were set off and the
demons of death and poverty did not linger, as all worked together.
At the end of the month the wall had been changed. It was now a
mighty bludgeon with which to drive pigs, boars, even lions, far
away. The Mandarin slept like a happy fox every night.
"I would like to see the Mandarin of Kwan-Si when the news is
learned. Such pandemonium and hysteria; he will likely throw
himself from a mountain! A little more of that wine, oh Daughterwho-thinks-like-a-son."
But the pleasure was like a winter flower; it died swiftly. That very
afternoon the messenger rushed into the courtroom. "Oh, Mandarin,
disease, early sorrow, avalanches, grasshopper plagues, and
poisoned well water!"
The Mandarin trembled.
"The town of Kwan-Si," said the messenger, "which was built like a
pig and which animal we drove away by changing our walls to a
mighty stick, has now turned triumph to winter ashes. They have
built their city's walls like a great bonfire to burn our stick!"
The Mandarin's heart sickened within him, like an autumn fruit
upon an ancient tree. "Oh, gods! Travelers will spurn us.
Tradesmen, reading the symbols, will turn from the stick, so easily
destroyed, to the fire, which conquers all!"
"No," said a whisper like a snowflake from behind the silken screen.
"No," said the startled Mandarin.
"Tell my stone-masons," said the whisper that was a falling drop of
rain, "to build our walls in the shape of a shining lake."
The Mandarin said this aloud, his heart warmed.
"And with this lake of water," said the whisper and the old man, "we
will quench the fire and put it out forever!"
What solution is presented in
reaction to The Mandarin’s fear
over the wall shaped like a pig?
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What is one other possible solution
to his fear that is not considered?
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Summarize what happens after the
city builds their wall into the shape
of a bludgeon: ________________
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What type of figurative language
is this? How does it characterize the
Mandarin? ___________________
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Predict what will happen in the
story after the city builds their wall
in the shape of a lake. Cite evidence
from the story to support your
prediction: ___________________
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The city turned out in joy to learn that once again they had been
saved by the magnificent Emperor of ideas. They ran to the walls
and built them nearer to this new vision, singing, not as loudly as
before, of course, for they were tired, and not as quickly, for since
it had taken a month to build the wall the first time, they had had
to neglect business and crops and therefore were somewhat
weaker and poorer.
There then followed a succession of horrible and wonderful days,
one in another like a nest of frightening boxes.
"Oh, Emperor," cried the messenger, "Kwan-Si has rebuilt their
walls to resemble a mouth with which to drink all our lake!"
"Then," said the Emperor, standing very close to his silken
screen, "build our walls like a needle to sew up that mouth!”
"Emperor!" screamed the messenger. "They make their walls like
a sword to break your needle!"
The Emperor held, trembling, to the silken screen. "Then shift the
stones to form a scabbard to sheathe that sword!"
"Mercy," wept the messenger the following morn, "they have
worked all night and shaped their walls like lightning which will
explode and destroy that sheath!"
Sickness spread in the city like a pack of evil dogs. Shops closed.
The population, working now steadily for endless months upon
the changing of the walls, resembled Death himself, clattering his
white bones like musical instruments in the wind. Funerals began
to appear in the streets, though it was the middle of summer, a
time when all should be tending and harvesting. The Mandarin
fell so ill that he had his bed drawn up by the silken screen and
there he lay, miserably giving his architectural orders. The voice
behind the screen was weak now, too, and faint, like the wind in
the eaves.
"Kwan-Si is an eagle. Then our walls must be a net for that eagle.
They are a sun to burn our net. Then we build a moon to eclipse
their sun!"
Like a rusted machine, the city ground to a halt.
At last the whisper behind the screen cried out:
"In the name of the gods, send for Kwan-Si!"
Upon the last day of summer the Mandarin Kwan-Si, very ill and
withered away, was carried into our Mandarin's courtroom by
four starving footmen. The two mandarins were propped up,
facing each other. Their breaths fluttered like winter winds in
their mouths. A voice said:
"Let us put an end to this."
The old men nodded.
"This cannot go on," said the faint voice. "Our people do nothing
but rebuild our cities to a different shape every day, every hour.
They have no time to hunt, to fish, to love, to be good to their
ancestors and their ancestors' children."
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What effect does building the wall have
on the people of the
city?______________________
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What type of figurative language is
used here? What is this figurative
language use to express about the
state of the city? ________________
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Describe what has been lost by
spending so much time rebuilding the
city wall: ______________________
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"This I admit," said the Mandarins of the towns of the Cage, the
Moon, the Spear, the Fire, the Sword and this, that, and other
things.
"Carry us into the sunlight," said the voice.
The old men were taken out under the sun and up a little hill. In
the late summer breeze a few very thin children were flying
dragon kites in all the colors of the sun, and frogs and grass, the
color of the sea and the color of coins and wheat.
The first Mandarin's daughter stood by his bed.
"See," she said.
"Those are nothing but kites," said the two old men.
"But what is a kite on the ground?" she said. "It is nothing. What
does it need to sustain it and make it beautiful and truly
spiritual?"
"The wind, of course!" said the others.
"And what do the sky and the wind need to make them
beautiful?"
"A kite, of course - many kites, to break the monotony, the
sameness of the sky. Colored kites, flying!"
"So," said the Mandarin's daughter. "You, Kwan-Si, will make a
last rebuilding of your town to resemble nothing more nor less
than the wind. And we shall build like a golden kite. The wind
will beautify the kite and carry it to wondrous heights. And the
kite will break the sameness of the wind's existence and give it
purpose and meaning. One without the other is nothing.
Together, all will be beauty and co-operation and a long and
enduring life."
Whereupon the two Mandarins were so overjoyed that they took
their first nourishment in days, momentarily were given strength,
embraced, and lavished praise upon each other, called the
Mandarin's daughter a boy, a man, a stone pillar, a warrior, and a
true and unforgettable son. Almost immediately they parted and
hurried to their towns, calling out and singing, weakly but
happily.
And so, in time, the towns became the Town of the Golden Kite
and the Town of the Silver Wind. And harvestings were
harvested and business tended again, and the flesh returned, and
disease ran off like a frightened jackal. And on every night of the
year the inhabitants in the Town of the Kite could hear the good
clear wind sustaining them. And those in the Town of the Wind
could hear the kite singing, whispering, rising, and beautifying
them.
"So be it," said the Mandarin in front of his silken screen.
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Describe the imagery used here.
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What lesson is the Mandarin’s daughter
trying to teach with the kite and the
wind? __________________________
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How do the towns change after
deciding to work together and become
Golden Kite and Silver Wind? _______
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c. Close Reading Questions: Answer the following questions about “Golden Kite, Silver Wind.”
1. What motivates the two towns to engage in the wall-building competition? Cite details from the story in your
answer: ____________________________________________________________________________________
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2. What are the negative effects of the competition on the townspeople? Cite details from the story in your
answer: ___________________________________________________________________________________
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3. How is the conflict between the two towns resolved? _______________________________________________
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4. What purpose do you think is served by the imagery on the hill at the end of the story?
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5. Use your notes on allegory and symbolism to explain why the story “Golden Kite, Silver Wind” is an allegory:
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TEXT ANALYSIS: SYMBOLISM AND ALLEGORY
6. Complete the following chart by writing how each event from the Cold War is symbolized in the story.
The first event is completed as an example for you.
Historical Event from the Cold War
The leaders of the countries believed that their
power was determined by how much destruction
they could cause by the bombs they built.
“Golden Kite, Silver Wind” Symbol
The leaders of the cities believed that their
prosperity was determined by the shape of the
wall they built.
The only focus in the country was on building
bombs and the fear in the atmosphere grew,
affecting the daily lives of the citizens.
The countries were motivated to build bigger and
stronger bombs by fear and distrust of each
other.
The Cold War ended when the counties reached a
compromise and agreed to stop building nuclear
weapons.
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