Allegory has been a popular literary technique for almost as long as we’ve had writing. But what are allegories? And how do you write one? Let’s look at the basics, plus a couple of famous examples.
As a literary technique, allegory has two key features:
Typically, writers use allegory to make a complex subject, such as morality or politics, easier to understand and more approachable. Some writers also use allegories to write about controversial subjects indirectly, distancing themselves from their true subject matter with the surface story.
Beyond this, allegories vary a lot. They can be long or short. Subtle or blunt. Critical or supportive. It all depends on what you want to achieve!
To help explain allegory in a bit more detail, we’ll look at two famous examples: Plato’s allegory of the cave and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
In Plato’s Republic, the narrator – the philosopher Socrates – tells a story about a group of people who live their entire lives chained to a wall in a cave, watching shadows projected on a wall in front of them.
To the people in the cave, the shadows are not mere images, but reality itself. They have no way of knowing otherwise as shadows are all they know. One day, though, one cave dweller escapes. He is shocked by the bright sun and the true nature of the world outside, but he cannot deny it exists.
Eventually, he returns to the cave to tell those who remained there what he has seen. But they don’t believe him. They even threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free. All they know is shadows, so any claim that “reality” is more than this is deemed outrageous and beyond belief.
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Here, Plato is really talking about how we know things. He believed in a realm of “Forms” beyond everyday reality, inaccessible except via philosophy. Thus, we can break down the allegory as follows:
On a literal level, then, this story is about people trapped in a cave refusing to believe in anything beyond their experience. But Plato’s aim in having Socrates tell this story was to explain why our everyday impressions of the world can be misleading, and why people resist philosophical truths.
To briefly summarize, Animal Farm tells the story of a group of farm animals who overthrow their human master. However, while they set out to create a fairer society where all animals are equal, their leaders become corrupt. As a result, the animals end up living in a dictatorship instead.
On its surface, this may seem like a warning against complacency for farmers. Or possibly a critique of the ability of working animals to organize politically. But it is really about Stalinism, with many elements of the story symbolizing real-life figures and events:
Likewise, the book hints at key events in the early years of Soviet Russia, such as Stalinist purges and show trials. This allowed Orwell to write a critique of Stalinism without discussing it directly. But by making this critique in story form, he also made his political ideas accessible to more people.
Finally, we have five quick tips for using allegory in your own writing:
And if you’d like any further assistance with your creative writing, allegorical or otherwise, we have editors and proofreaders available 24/7. Upload a sample document for free today to find out more.
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