1A Class Notes: Eleven Elements of Allegory

1.    The story does not strive for realism; instead it emphasizes symbols and metaphors.
2.    The symbols in the story are often characters who represent political or religious ideas.
3.    Because the characters are not real human beings but represent ideas, they often engage in grotesque, exaggerated behavior.
4.    In the symbolic narrative there is no explicit meaning; the meaning is implicit, which means the reader must read between the lines and find the hidden message.
5.    Often allegories disguise the true meaning, often an attack of the authorities, to escape political and religious persecution.
6.    Often there are symbols for good and evil.
7.    Commonly, there are images of apocalypse, plagues, famines, droughts, natural disasters, and other Biblical doomsday scenarios.
8.    The story does not seem real or believable but is rather like a dream or a fantasy.
9.    Often the story is a fable in that it wants to teach a moral lesson or give the reader a warning about what will happen.
10.    Often the story is a fable with a prophecy about what catastrophe will happen in the future if moral degradation continues to take place.
11.    A common form of allegory is to use animals in place of humans like the George Orwell novel Animal Farm.