Literary Terms Analysis with Examples 1) Allusion: An allusion describes a famous literary figure or historical event. In an allusion, the author of a literary work refers to a well-known episode from a book or occasion. Thus, the two things most often alluded to in literature (the two greatest known literary works) deal with Shakespeare's plays and the New Testament. Examples: In modern-day literature, George Orwell alludes to the "Evil Empire," in his book, Animal Farm. Orwell was a visionary-only years later would the world come to see that the "Iron Curtain" Stalin had created formed an "Evil Empire" which spawned half of Europe, some of Asia, much of Latin America, and some parts of Africa. In Animal Farm, Orwell exposes the reasons why communism does not work-explaining that in a totalitarian state with a dictator and several puppets, or a group of dictators, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." And so, in his unpopular satirical allusion to the Soviet Union (which was the goal of his book) Orwell explained what would only be seen by the public a decade later. In The Unvanquished, Faulkner refers to "homemade Jordan,"-as the blacks believe that when they cross the river they will crossing the river Jordan and getting into the Promised Land, while all that they are crossing is a simple river and they will still be in the same state they are in. The allusion Faulkner makes is to the bible, where the people cross the River Jordan to get into the Promised Land. 2) Ambiguity explains a situation in which the effect produced by literary work makes the reader aware of different interpretations. It uses words or phrases with multiple meanings to achieve a state where the reader sees a vague idea-which he can take to mean different things. Example: In The Chocolate War, Cormier says that "for no reason at all, he [Jerry] thought of Gregory Bailey." In this passage, Cormier does not explain what Jerry was thinking, and le...
