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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Ancient Greece and Myths:
When Richard explains his own journey into academia, he uses an apt allusion to Ancient Greek history:
In what seemed even to me a doomed and Pyrrhic gesture, I switched to English literature without telling my parents. I felt that I was cutting my own throat by this, that I would certainly be very sorry, being still convinced that it was better to fail in a lucrative field than to thrive in one that my father (who knew nothing of either finance or academia) had assured me was most unprofitable.
What Richard calls his “Pyrrhic gesture” is an allusion to the Greek king Pyrrhus, who ruled during the Hellenistic period. Pyrrhus is most known for defeating the Romans; however, he lost the majority of his troops in doing so. Even though Richard was able to switch to a major he enjoyed, he felt that he was losing his potential profitability. While he might have won the battle against his father, he figured he would still lose the war of success in a cutthroat world.
This allusion to Pyrrhus is the first of many defining allusions to literature and history in the novel. The characters mention, quote, and even discuss classical works such as Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Homer's Iliad, Plato's Republic, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, just to highlight a few.
By engaging with Ancient Greek history and philosophy, as well as more modern literature, the novel accentuates the abnormal—and sometimes useless—intellectual capacity of Henry and the other students. Camilla, Charles, Henry, Francis and Bunny—all of these characters have devoted their entire college educations to Julian and his Greek lectures.
At the start, Richard and the reader view the students as exclusive geniuses. However, the more that Richard learns about the group, the more he begins to understand their fatal flaws. Though they can speak Ancient Greek, they lack both common sense and a grasp on reality. As a result, the novel's allusions hint at the fact that the Greek students have hidden their own foolishness under a mask of erudition.
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Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Black Death:
When Richard attends a Friday night party at Hampden, he counts on the fact that the other Greek students will not be there. He describes their aversion to parties with a hyperbolic simile and allusion:
I knew none of my fellow Greek students would be there. Having been to every Friday night party since school began, I knew they avoided them like the Black Death.
Richard suggests that the Greek students' avoid parties as heartily as one would avoid the Black Death. This comparison serves not only as a simile emphasizing the Greek students’ aversion to modern enjoyments, but also as an allusion to the infamous disease that rampaged the world in the 14th century.
In this moment, Richard also begins to understand the modus operandi of the Greek students in terms of establishments and hobbies. By using an allusion to the Black Death, Richard suggests that Henry and the other students are living in a different millennium and that they see themselves as a different class of people. Moreover, using such a gruesome and weighty simile emphasizes how the Greek students view the rest of Hampden as inferior. In their view, students like Judy Poovey are as untouchable and doomed as someone who has contracted the plague.
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Othello's Eye Roll:
Richard decides to stay in Hampden for winter break instead of going back to California to see his parents. With an allusion to Othello, Richard imagines how infuriatingly his father might act:
Already I could hear my father complaining beerily about me to Mr. MacNatt, Mr. MacNatt slyly goading him on with remarks insinuating that I was spoiled and that he wouldn’t allow any son of his to walk all over him, if he had one. This would drive my father into a fury; eventually he would come busting dramatically into my room and order me out, his forefinger trembling, rolling his eyes like Othello.
This allusion to Shakespeare's tragic play Othello is not unexpected coming from Richard: he is a student of literature and is likely interested in literature because of his desire to escape reality. If anything, this allusion proves how utterly consumed both Richard and the rest of the Greek students are by academia. Allusions to history and literature infiltrate their lives and everyday speech at an alarming rate. The group even uses Ancient Greek as a secret form of communication while covering up Bunny's murder.
In this Shakespearean allusion, Richard compares his dad to Othello, a man who murders his wife out of jealousy. Only too late does Othello realize that his jealousy was fueled by false claims. This comparison proves how unforgiving and unsupportive Richard's father is, even in the face of clear academic success. Like Othello, Richard's father is ruthlessly close-minded. In Richard's imagined scenario, his father rolls his eyes in the same way that Othello rolls his eyes at his wife before killing her.
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Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—This is Kansas:
On the morning of Bunny's death, Richard describes the spring nature with fearful personification and an allusion to the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
It was a strange, still, oppressive day. The campus seemed deserted—everyone was at the party, I supposed—and the green lawn, the gaudy tulips, were hushed and expectant beneath the overcast sky. Somewhere a shutter creaked. Above my head, in the wicked black claws of an elm, a marooned kite rattled convulsively, then was still. This is Kansas, I thought. This is Kansas before the cyclone hits.
In this passage, Richard personifies the spring plants in order to set up the tension before Bunny’s murder. The tulips are, much like Richard, waiting anxiously for something to happen on the weird-weathered day. The elm trees have “wicked black claws,” as if ready to pounce on someone. The nature is not only personified but also a mirror image of Richard's own fears. Richard even compares the day to the moment before a tornado hits in Kansas, a direct allusion to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its notorious cyclone. Kansas's climate is prone to tornadoes; therefore, many residents can simply feel in the air that something bad is coming. Richard similarly feels that something terrible is about to occur at Hampden College.
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Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Like the Kennedys :
When the wealthy and charitable Paul Vanderfeller shows up at Bunny's funeral, Mr. Corcoran is immediately "healed." Recalling the Corcorans' lunches with and anecdotes about Mr. Vanderfeller, Richard alludes to the Kennedys:
Maybe it was because the Corcorans were Irish, maybe it was that Mr. Corcoran was born in Boston, but the whole family seemed to feel, somehow, that it had a mysterious affinity with the Kennedys. It was a resemblance they tried to cultivate—especially Mrs. Corcoran, with her hairdo and faux-Jackie glasses—but it also had some slight physical basis: in Brady and Patrick’s toothy, too-tanned gauntness there was a shadow of Bobby Kennedy while the other brothers, Bunny among them, were built on the Ted Kennedy model.
This allusion compares the Corcoran family to the Kennedy family with mentions of specific and well-known details about the Kennedys’ appearances. For example, Jackie Kennedy Onassis's famous hairdo and sunglasses match Mrs. Corcoran's appearance. Richard even notes the Corcoran boys' similarities to Bobby and Ted Kennedy. Above all, Richard picks up on the fact that the Corcoran family likes to flatter itself by comparing itself to the Kennedy family. Richard, for his part, does not come from a prestigious family, and it is perhaps because of this that he's able to identify just how desperate the Corcorans are to affiliate themselves with a powerful and widely respected American name.
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