Literary & Socio/Cultural

PresentedAllusions
by the Senior AP English Class
of Shasta High School - 2007
Age of Aquarius
• In popular culture, the expression
"Age of Aquarius" usually refers to
the heyday of the hippie and New
Age "movement" of the 1960s and
1970s. The New Age Movement is
more accurately a phenomenon,
not a movement, and yet seen by
many as the harbinger of this
future change-over values.
• A period or impotus of change.
• The 1970s is a prime example of a
period of radical change, an age
 Albatross
• The word albatross is sometimes used to mean
an encumbrance, or a wearisome burden. It is an
allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).
• In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship,
and is seen as a good omen. However the titular
mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow,
and is made to wear the bird around his neck as a
penance by his shipmates.
Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks
Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
• Example: "'That War' [Vietnam] will be an
albatross around my generation's neck until
Babes in the Wood
• The traditional children's tale is of two
children abandoned in a wood who die and
are covered with leaves by robins.
• The Traditional story is also used as a basis
for pantomimes. However, for various
reasons including both the brevity of the
original and the target pantomime audience
of young children, modern pantomimes
usually combine this story with parts of the
modern Robin Hood story 
• Folklore has it that the events told in Babes
in the Wood originally happened in Wayland
Wood in Norfolk, England. It is said that the
Uncle lived at the nearby Griston Hall. The
ghosts of the murdered children are said to
haunt Wayland Wood. The village signs at
both Griston and nearby Watton depict the
story.
• The essence of the lore concerns two
children. After the death of their parents,
they are left in the care of an Uncle.
However, the Uncle resents the task and
Beard the Lion in his Den
• Historical Background:   This
term was originally a Latin
proverb based on a Bible story (I
Samuel 17:35) about the
shepherd David, who pursued a
lion that had stolen a lamb,
caught it by its beard, and then
killed it. It is also considered to be
a part of another Bible story,
Daniel 6:16-24. It was about
Daniel being shut in a lion’s den
for the night. 
• Allusion:   To confront a danger
or take a risk 
• Sentence:   I went straight to my
boss, bearding the lion in his
 Billy Sunday 
• Billy Sunday- an evangelical preacher who also
played in the major leagues.
-decent baseball player, playing eight years in
the pros, but never made a huge impact on the
baseball diamond. One day when he was
grabbing a drink with some of his buddies, he
came by a church and walked in, attracted by
the gospel songs his mother had sung. After a
little convincing from a society matron at the
church, he believed that God was his calling. He
changed drastically, completely abstaining
from alcohol and starting his fellowship with
God immediately. He is one of the most
influential preachers in history, and is arguably
the most influential preacher of the 20th century,
and without a doubt of the first two decades.
He was a staunch supporter of Prohibition.
• If someone is compared to Billy Sunday, they are
Casus Belli
• Background:
Casus belli is a modern Latin Language
expression meaning the justification for
acts of war. Casus means "incident",
"rupture" or indeed "case", while belli
means "of war". Despite the apparent age
that the use of Latin confers on it, the term
did not come into wide usage until the late
nineteenth century with the rise of the
political doctrine of “jus ad bellum" or “just
war theory".
• Today:
Informal usage varies beyond its technical
definition to refer to any "just cause" a
nation may claim for entering into a
conflict. Today it is used to describe
situations when war has not been formally
declared.
• Example:
 Chesnut
• Mary Chestnut wrote a series of
diary entries during the Civil War
that were published after her death
(1981).   
• Her entries dealt with the attitudes
and experiences of Southerners
during the war.  Her candid
opinions reflected strong support
for women’s rights and the
abolition of slavery. 
• Allusions to Chestnut reflect the
voice of a self-righteous individual
speaking out of an unusual
situation. 
 Chiaroscuro
• This word is Italian for ‘light dark’ and can be
defined as the bold contrast between light and
dark.  This term originated during the
Renaissance in the art of the time period,
featuring stark contrasts between light and dark
in the paintings of artists. 
•       As an allusion the term can refer literally to a
dark and light contrast apparent in the text, or
the term would refer to extreme contrasts,
particularly between characters, events, or
settings.  An example of an allusion to
chiaroscuro can be found in an article from the
New York Times written by Michiko Kakutani,
which says, “Sights, sounds, smells and moods
are all beautifully conjured, then painted over
lightly with a chiaroscuro of menace. Characters
are turned into allegorical symbols and then back
into people again.”  The allusion here is identified
to refer to the contrast between the beautiful
sights and sounds and the appearance of menace
Dead Man’s Hand
• In poker, the dead man's hand
is a two-pair hand, namely “aces
and eights." The origin of the
name, legend has it, is the five-
card-draw hand held by Wild Bill
Hickok at the time of his
murder.
• There are various claims as to
the identity of Hickok's fifth
card, and there is also some
reason to believe that he had
discarded one card, the draw
was interrupted by the shooting,
and he never got the fifth card
he was due.
• Extremely unexpected and
 Dogs of War 
• Dogs of War is a term used to refer to one of
several things. It can refer to soldiers, enemy
soldiers, corrupt generals, but is most
commonly used in reference to Marc
Antony’s prediction of chaos as he stands
over Julius Caesar’s dead body.
• It represents a situation of chaos that is
about to unfold. The specific quote was “Cry
"Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.”
Usually this chaos is set off by some sort of
events taken by some of the stories
characters. It is kind of a karma or “what
goes around comes around theory” in that
the commotion usually attacks those who
have performed some bad deed. This, again,
 Double Speak
• Origin:  The concept for the
term comes from George Orwel's
1984, though the book never
uses the word "doublespeak." 
The book contains "newspeak,"
however, which is a language
designed to restrict mentality of
the country's citizens.
• Meaning:  The term is used to
refer to language that is
carefully worded to mask its true
meaning, such as the term
"period of negative growth" to
mean "depression."
• Example:  The politician filled
his speech with doublespeak to
 Faustian Bargain
• Represents making a pact with the
devil where one would trade their soul
in return for favors like youth,
knowledge, wealth, or power.
• The original story of the Faustian
Bargain is about a German astrologer
who sold his soul to the devil in
exchange for knowledge and power.
• Example: What she had to do to obtain
that much more power was the
equivalent of a Faustian Bargain.
 Fu Manchu 
Historical Background:   A fictional character of
Chinese origin first introduced in the novels by
Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th
century. In the novels, Fu Manchu is a master
criminal trying to free China from imperialist
oppression. His murderous plots are marked by
guns, knives, and poisonous animals.
"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-
shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a
face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long,
magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him
with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern
race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all
the resources of science past and present, with
all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy
government--which, however, already has
denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine
that awful being, and you have a mental picture
of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in
one man." 
Allusion:   According to Cay Van Ash, a friend of
 Gild the Lily
• To “gild the lily” is to adorn
unnecessarily (something that is
already beautiful) or to make
unnecessary additions to what is
already complete .
• Gilding is like covering lilies with
gold
• Fixing Mr. O’s eyes would be
gilding the lily.
 The Gordian Knot
• History – Midas was appointed king of
Phrygia because he was the first man
with a wagon/ox cart to enter the city
while the elders were discussing who was
to be king (an oracle had told them that a
man with a wagon would come and end
the civil unrest).  In thanks, Midas built a
shrine to Zeus and tied his wagon to a
pole in the center of the shrine, with a
huge, complicated knot, that had no ends
and no one could untie it.  It was
prophesized that whoever could undo it
would be the next ruler of Asia Minor. 
Alexander the Great tried to unravel it
but, had to cut it with his sword to get it
undone. 
• How it is used – The Gordian knot is
used to represent difficult and complex
problems that seem to have no solution,
and a Gordian solution is one that may
Mess of Pottage
• The phrase mess of pottage
means something of little or trivial
value. It is associated with the
exchange by Esau of his birthright
for a meal of lentil stew, as
described in Genesis 25:29-34 in
the Bible.
• The allusion to a mess of pottage
can be used to refer to someone
when they accept some trivial
financial or other gain, something
seemingly worthless, but then lose
something much more important.
• IE:  In the casino on her eighteenth
 Nirvana
• Nirvana is a mode where one is free from “mind-
contaminants” such as lust, anger, or craving.
Nirvana is a state where all passions and
emotions are stilled—the end of suffering,
paralleling its definition of “extinction or
extinguishing” and also comparable to the fact
that the experience of Nirvana is when all six
bases (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and
mind) cannot feel. It is also known as the
“highest happiness”; not a happiness as our
Western culture would view it, but an enduring
transcendental happiness that is essential to the
calmness attained through enlightenment.
Buddha describes that abiding in nirvana will
lead to “deathlessness” or being
“unconditioned”, the highest spiritual
attainment. There are eight attributes of
Nirvana: “cessation, loveliness/wholesomeness,
truth, reality, eternity, bliss, the self, and
 Rosetta Stone
• Discovered in Egypt in 1799,
the Rosetta Stone is a large
block of basalt inscribed with a
report of a decree passed in
196 BC. Written in three
languages, the stone gave
historians many clues as to the
meaning of Egyptian
Hieroglyphs.
• Rosetta stone - (a) stone
written in both heiroglyphics
and Greek 
• Something that is a critical key
to the process of decryption or
 Salad Days
• An idiomatic expression, referring to a
youthful time, accompanied by the
inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism,
innocence, or indiscretion that one
associates with a young person.
• More modern use, especially in the
United States, refers to a person's
heyday—when somebody was at the
peak of their abilities—not necessarily
when they were young .
• “In my salad days, I could actually feed
myself,” said Gerta.
 Utopian Allusion
• The Reference:   Allusion to Utopia is a reference to Sir
Thomas More’s book titled De Optimo Reipublicae Statu
deque Nova Insula Utopia (translated to On the Best
State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia). 
The work presents a civilization in which evils of society,
such as poverty and evil, have been eliminated.
• Usage:  Allusions to Utopia can also imply the concepts
of:
-An ideal state or society that cannot be reached
-A picture of perfection; the highest possible end
-Absolute harmony between members of a
civilization; peace
-A vision of perceived perfection that does not
tangibly exist
-A naïve or impossibly visionary scheme (often
portrayed in contempt)
• Example:  “Utopia” by Wislawa Szymborska
 “…For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,/and the
faint footprints scattered on its beaches turn without
 Yin and Yang
Yin: is earth, passive, dark, feminine, and
even
Yang: is heaven, active, light, masculine,
and odd
• Yin – (literally "shady place, north slope
(hill), south bank (river); cloudy, overcast")
is the darker element; it is sad, passive,
dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and
corresponds to the night.
• Yang – ("sunny place, south slope (hill),
north bank (river);
sunshine") is the brighter element; it is
happy, active, light, masculine, upward-