Help on a literary term-Allusion?

Question

I have to draw a picture representing what an allusion is. Any ideas?

Answer 1

An allusion in literature is an implied reference. This reference could be anything: a reference to another literary work, a reference to history, etc.



J.K. Rowling uses allusions quite a bit in all of her Harry Potter Books. For instance, one of the characters Professor Remus Lupin was a warewolf. The allusion here is in his name: Remus is an allusion to the Roman mythilogical story of Romulous and Remus and how they were cared for by a she wolf (lupa in latin).



To draw a picture of an allusion, I might take this example and draw a picture of Professor Lupin, and then in the background draw a picture of Romulous and Remus being cared for by the wolf.



Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

Personally, my first thought about an allusion is that it is a connection between one work and another. So maybe you can draw some sort of diagram that shows how the work you are reading and the work that it alludes to are connected. Of course, I doubt you'd get much credit if you just draw a connecting line between two books, so you'll have to do a little deeper thinking about how exactly they are connected, but that's a starting point.



Maybe try to think of a metaphor/simile for an allusion - what is an allusion like? Try to think of some physical object that connects things that you could compare an allusion to.



Again, there has to be more to it than just the fact that it connects things. You'll probably have to be able to explain to your teacher why you picked that type of connector over another. So try to think about how the two works relate to each other. Is one more important than the other? If so, draw something that connects a less important object to a more important object. There are some types of connectors that send information two ways, like a phone line, where people on both ends can talk. An allusion doesn't go two ways, so you probably want to avoid drawing something that connects things in both directions. Start by brainstorming a big long list of things that connect two objects, and then try to think of more specific ways that each item on your list might be similar to what an allusion does. Pick the one that fits best.



I know this isn't very specific, but I hope it gives a start, anyway.

Answer 3

Today an allusion may often be lost on the general public. In the past, maybe early 20th century and before, a poet could use an allusion to show an emotional attitude when he could count on a reader that was trained in the classics. Many times the classics would involve ancient myths which were commonly known by more people.



For example, a man can be afflicted with an "Achilles' heel," meaning he has one major weak point. Or a phoenix that can rise from the ashes, meaning a comeback despite adversity.



We no longer read the classics widely so much allusion is lost. Our replacement is this bits and bytes.

Answer 4

I agree with eyrefan. To "allude" is to make referance to another idea. In poetry for instance, there might be "allusions" to Greek mythology or even the Bible. But to draw is another matter altogether I suppose. I'm no artist, but I suppose using contemporary images to mimic an old idea might be interesting. For instance, PETA caused controversy by equating the mass killing of chickens to the genocide of world war II. Here by putting up the image of culling of chickens, PETA is making an "allusion" to the massacre of WWII and implying that they are both the same thing. So, the message at the end of your picture would be underlining the same theme between past and present. What that picture is, I guess you might have to figure it out yourself. :)