The Glass Castle, Part II

Today, we focused on the rhetorical strategy of allegory:
Allegory is a device used in literature, rhetoric and art to signify a meaning that is not literal.

Other characteristics:

1. A device, a character or a symbol is considered allegory when it is symbolic of a concept, like reason or fortune.
2. An allegory can also be used to symbolize a type of person
3. An allegory can also symbolize a commonly held view of a large group of people (religious, political, etc)
4. In the modern novel, an allegory comes down to interpretation in the developing novel and the modern novel. Literary critics often argue as to whether characters are meant to be allegorical, real or stereotypical. Often literary characters can be read in multiple ways.

Modern Examples: Spiderman and Batman, for example, are all allegorical representations of the “everyman.” The evils they fight are the temptations to greed, to violence and to behavior that will in other ways disrupt society. Superheroes stand as both the everyman and the guardian against evil. One of the most interesting workings of allegory in modern television was the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each week Buffy would face a new demon or vampire that was also allegorical to whatever issues Buffy faced as a high school and later college student.

Aesop's Fables: Stories like The Fox and the Grapes, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Ant and the Grasshopper that became a source of moral messages. Aesop used animals and their actions to allegorically represent human beings and our way of living.

The Bible: The "apple" that Adam receives from Eve is symbolic of the “knowledge of God and Evil” and is thus allegorical. The serpent is often read as an allegory signifying the tempter, or true evil. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ makes frequent use of the parable to make statements about “people” in general.

From Plato’s The Republic Allegory of the Cave: "And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets. . . .

"And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision."

The Allegory of the Cave is a representation of how man accepts conventions and refuses to question them. Plato conveys this message by using a group of prisoners trapped in a cave.


Divine Comedy: This epic poem is one of the best examples of allegory in literature. It depicts Dante's journey through Hell, Heaven, and Purgatory to represent the journey of one's soul to God.

The Faerie Queen: One of the longest poems in English literature, it is an allegory in praise of the life and rule of Queen Elizabeth I.

Animal Farm: George Orwell's Animal Farm is probably one of the best known examples of allegory in literature in which a farm governed by animals stands to represent the communist regime of Stalin in Russia before the Second World War.

Lord of the Flies: William Golding represented his idea of human nature and a need to put self above the rest. Featuring a group of schoolboys stuck on an island, this novel had allegorical representations of the rational mind, democracy, order and civility, and many other such abstract terms.



The following Glass Castle questions (as well as your Friday reading!) are due tomorrow:
1. How does the author’s mom use the death of Mary Charlene to make excuses for her husband? How does the author’s portrayal of the event convey her perspective to the audience?
2. How does the author use tone, diction and syntax at the end of page 31 convey her attitude toward her parents?
3. Read through p. 34 and then, at this point in the memoir, explain the symbolism of fire.
4. How does the Joshua Tree symbolizes the author’s own life?
5. Contrast the way the author views her father with the way her “friend,” Billy Deel views his. Which child’s view is more accurate?
6. How effectively does the author portray the dangers of alcoholism to the audience? (Think back to the Scott Russell Sanders essay “Under the Influence” and draw comparisons if you like).
7. Identify and analyze the effect of an appeal to ethos, an appeal to pathos, and an appeal to logos.