What Is An Allegory?
A Quick Guide To Those Hard To Understand Symbols in Literature
The following will explain what an allegory is an offer some famous and not so famous examples of the literary technique.
What is an Allegory?
An allegory, as it relates to literature, is a form of rhetoric to tell a story instead of only using plain language. This might include (but is not limited to) symbolism used to communicate a message figuratively rather than using literal language. For example, one might argue that the Old Testament’s creation story is an example of the allegory. Adam represents man, Eve represents woman, the apple might represent human temptation and weakness, and the serpent represents the evil that has existed from the beginning of time. While some might still argue the literal truth of the creation story, one could still hold the story up as a means to show how the allegory can be used.
Examples of Allegories
One example of the allegory is “The Man on the Ceiling” by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem. This award-winning short story was expanded into a novel of the same name, and the authors use the narrative to tell the story of their real life marriage. In this story, the narrators regularly refer to a man on the ceiling, and also say that someone is in their bedroom. They also reflect on how the man on the ceiling has carried one of their children away. They do not mean to say that they truly have a nightly bedroom intruder, or that anyone has literally carried one of their children away, but instead they seem to identify the man on the ceiling as a symbol of the dreadful things that they have experienced in their marriage.
The Allegory in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"
A very famous example of the allegory is “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. In the story, an entire town searches for Homer, who hasn’t been seen for quite a while (even though they do seem to be conscious of a smell coming from his house). The story’s climax is the townspeople realizing that Emily has been sleeping with Homer’s corpse.
Faulkner’s purpose is to comment on attitudes of the Old South. In this case, Emily represents the town, and the townspeople represent the Old South. By sleeping with a corpse, Emily illustrates Faulkner’s purpose of explaining how people have clung to the Old South, which is dead and gone.
Something important to note about Faulkner’s literary time and place is that writers often wrote short stories as political and social commentaries rather than publishing fiction simply for entertainment value. For this reason, Faulkner would have used these allegorical symbols to illustrate the point that he wanted to make. You will also find the allegory in Ernest Hemingway's short fiction.
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