Allusions

Now that we've pointed it out, it seems like there are allusions everywhere.

I believe that the story of Adam and Eve is one of the most common biblical allusions used in

literature: how man became corrupt and was exiled from the Garden of Eden; the serpent

was the one who lured the first man and woman into sin; by eating from the Tree of Knowledge

of Good and Evil, man was able to see the truth and know the difference between good

and evil. The allusion of Adam and Eve was even seen in All the King's Men. Adam Stanton

was an allusion of the biblical Adam and Anne Stanton was Eve. Also, the first page of the

novel which described the road was a biblical allusion to the serpent and how the black

lines can make a person lose focus, tempting them into sin that they do not truly desire.

It's interesting how these allusions can be put into almost any literature. This shows how

the concept of intertextuality which we learned about in the first week of school

can be none but true. This allusion is also seen in Lord of the Flies which we read in our

Junior year. The island which was a symbol of paradise similar to the Garden of Eden.

However, it soon becomes corrupt when the boys land on it and are overcome by their

selfish desires.

The second allusion we learned in class this week was about Cain and Abel.

Basically, God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's because of the thought each put

into their offerings. Cain became jealous of Abel and killed him. When God asked Cain where

Abel was, Cain said "Am I my brother's keeper" and pretended that he didn't do anything.

However God knew the truth and sent Cain away and made him wander around earth

for the rest of his life. This is known as the curse of Cain, which is also a popular allusion.

From the presentation, we were able to see the example of this allusion

used in Mice and Men by John  Steinbeck, George being representative of Cain and Lennie of Abel. In this novel, we see that George kills Lennie because he didn’t want to see Curley torture Lennie which was a burden to him. I find it really amusing to find intertextuality between books and stories. It brings much more understanding and knowledge about the former and current book I am reading.

I’m not sure how much of these allusions I’ll have to know for the rest of my life, however, I do know that it will help me a lot with reading and understanding the main concepts of novels.

I’m excited to learn more about allusions and to find out where I have read about similar stories in different books. A benefit for me is that I am familiar with a lot of the biblical stories and figures because I am a Christian. I know that this familiarity will help me a lot in the future. J