Essay on Allegory in Forster's The Other Side of the Hedge

An allegory is a story in which characters, events, and settings symbolize abstract or moral

An allegory means a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. It can be a moral or political meaning. The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, a historical fiction novel, by Christopher Paul Curtis is a story about the Watsons driving to Alabama and experienced a horrific bombing that took place at a Baptist church on 16th street. The Watsons are a good example of an allegory because the events in the story often seem symbolic of the events involving Civil Rights and the United States. The Watsons were just a typical family that arrived in Alabama to drop Byron off there. Then, they encountered a problem, which caused the character to change, much like America in the 1960s.

Allegory is when a writer extends symbolism to every part of a story to communicate a secondary meaning that parallels the literal meaning. A common example of allegory is “The Tortoise and the Hare.” On its surface, this is a story about a tortoise that, unexpectedly, beats a hare in a footrace, but the underlying message is that those who devote their attention to cultivating a skill surpass those who are born with natural talents. Allegory has been used for a variety purposes, but among the most common is pointing out and critiquing the flaws of society. Any metaphor that is extended throughout an entire story to communicate a meaning that is separate from the literal is allegory.

For example, the first time death is symbolized in this story is when the family passes a graveyard. “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island. ‘Look at the graveyard!’ the grandmother said, pointing it out. ‘That was the old FAMILY burying grounds.’” (99). O’Connor purposely mentions the specific number of graves, one grave for each person in the car. She also mentions that it was a “family” burying ground. This symbolism foreshadows that the family will soon face death. When the family is driving through the town, the grandmother remembers the old plantation is called “Toombsboro”. This plantation’s name is brought up to remind the reader of death. Toombsboro sounds like the tomb, symbolizing the family will soon face their tombs. Another description that is given to symbolize the deaths is that of the Misfits car. “It was a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (103). A hearse is a vehicle designed to carry coffins for funerals. This description also foreshadows the death of the family before the Misfit arrives. Lastly, the “woods, tall and dark and deep” (105) represent the family’s death. The woods symbolize the unknown and fear we have for death, which is considered dark and deep. The Grandmother stood in front of the woods reminding us that death is always near and behind us. Just like the woods, death can be a scary thing

Allegories are used for many reasons, such as debating about politics, or create moral meanings, but what intrigues me is that authors are able to express their ideas on controversies that have happened in the past with their own stories, simultaneously giving it a better context to the story, and give a peek of how it would feel if the reader was in the situation, just with an allegory.

He uses specific choice of words like "Dark", "Sorcerer" and "Visions" to provide a sense of wonder and mystery as if it was an adventure. Which portrays the anticipation that Douglas feels towards all of the adventures that summer will bring. The passage also consists of a simile in lines 48 through 50. The sentence reads "The street lights, like candles on a black cake, went out." This particular lines connect to the first paragraph of the whole passage which mentioned the sun hasn't rised. The simile is a comparing lit street lights to that of candles which at first are lit but once you blow them out it's light is gone. The lines are explaining that the street lights are off, now that they are not needed since the sun is out. Personification is found in lines 49 through 50. Which say the following " As house lights winked slowly on." This sentence,personifies house lights as winking which represents house lights slowly turning on. Therefore, people are starting to wake up and the day is about to commence. Towards the end of the passage Douglas Spaulding is preparing to leave his home and enjoy his summer. A metaphor is illustrated in line 74 through 75. For example "The town trolley would sail the rivering black streets." In the sentence, the streets are being compared to an ocean. Which portrays Douglas imagination and desire for his summer adventures to begin. Visual

One of the main symbols used is lightness and darkness. The light represents good and the dark represent evil. After momma told the story of uncle’s brother being hit by a car, she said, “Your daddy says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away.” Baldwin uses the symbol of darkness to create a meaning behind daddy’s depression and the uncle’s death. Death and murder are considered a very dark subject. The reason daddy couldn’t feel anything darker than the road is because all he could feel is the darkness and depression of his brother dying in front of him. If you think about it, darkness overall is connected with sadness, hurt and anything evil. During the entire story, the narrator

It sets the beginning scene of the story containing a crowd of people in front of a heavy wooden oak door. The building is a prison and outside the wall is a rosebush that represents a symbol of nature's kindness to the condemned, or relief in unrelenting sorrow and gloom.

As the title of the text suggests, there is a great deal of Allegory used

As much as setting helps to shape the plotline of The Road, so does the story’s cold season. The novel begins in autumn and slowly gets closer to winter towards the ending. These seasons, as Foster explains in the twentieth chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, are often directly associated with the stages of human life. For instance, spring is usually correlated with birth, summer with adulthood, autumn with decline, and winter with death. Nevertheless, the autumn season in The Road is symbolic of the protagonists’ struggle to survive and to keep moving south towards the ocean. As autumn slowly transitions into winter and the snow falls harder, the tougher survival becomes for the two. The boy tells his father that “every day is a lie. But you are dying, and that is not a lie” (McCarthy 200). Then, once the novel reaches its end, the season is colder than anytime previously

The main theme of the poem however, is the sadness and misfortune that accompany us on our journey through life. The Wilson River Road, in which the events of the poem take place, is symbolic of the road of life that we all travel upon. The darkness and the setting of the poem point to the seclusion and indecision that we experience when dealing with life’s tragedies. Many people feel as confused as the narrator does when he was “stumbling back of the car” (5, 911) in his attempt to do the right thing. In his moment of decision, though, the only company the narrator had was the silent and unheeding world around him.

In his poem, "Traveling Through the Dark," William Stafford presents the reader with the difficulty of one man's choice. Immediately, the scene is set, with the driver, who is "traveling though the dark" (line 1) coming upon a recently killed deer. At first, his decision with what to do with the deer is easy; he knows he must push it off the edge for the safety of other motorists, but then, a closer examination of the deer reveals to the man new circumstances. His decision is now perplexing, and his course of action is unclear. Through his use of metaphor, symbolism, and personification, Stafford alludes to the difficult decisions that occur along the road of life, and the

I agree with allegory presupposes that there is distinction between appearances and reality because people never trying to know reality. Most people have their two sides, one side to show and another side who they are in reality. Sometime people get conclusion by seeing people outer look without knowing who is he or she. Sometimes people do not want to accept the truth because truth is always bitter. In the “The Allegory of the Cave” it explain that how prisoners thought about outside world. If they know the truth about outside world, they will never able to believe it because they are staying inside cave and just able to see their shadow.

From the physical journey of driving through a town the reader will experience a second journey, a spiritual journey when they oversee the lives of the people within the town. The composer utilizes a 2nd person perspective to engage his audience and hopefully take them on the same physical and spiritual journey. He uses personification such as “The houses there wear verandas out of shyness” to give the audience a sense of the community and set a harmonizing tone. I believe this poem really captures Les Murrays hypothesized concept of journeys, as it’s much deeper than a simplistic drive.

Thus, during the course of this essay it is best not to think of allegory in terms of the size of a body of writing, but as writing with a “second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning”(Baldick 6). Whilst reading for political