Otar Chiladze’s “A Man Was Going Down the Road” is a novel that combines Georgian history and Greek mythology to create an allegory of the treachery and destruction that ensued when Russia, and then the Soviet Union, annexed Georgia. The novel begins with the Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece and the consequences …
Examples of Allegories
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter is a historical novel that tells the story of a young boy named True Son, who was captured by the Delaware Indians when he was only four years old. After living with the Indians for over a decade, True Son is forced to return to his biological …
“The Land of Green Plums” by Herta Müller is a novel that portrays the lives of four young individuals living in a totalitarian police state in Communist Romania. The book is an allegory that explores the themes of repression, injustice, and the human spirit’s resilience. The novel’s narrator is an unidentified young woman who belongs …
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes is a novel that has captured the attention of readers for decades. Published in 1936, it is one of the early prominent novels to portray explicit homosexuality between women, and as such can be considered lesbian literature. The novel employs modernist techniques such as its unusual form or narrative and gothic …
Le livre du chemin de long estude by Christine de Pizan is a first-person dream allegory that presents a critique of the moral state of the world, particularly France, lamenting the results of warfare. Composed in 1402-03, the poem was dedicated to Charles VI of France. In the allegory, the author describes a dream in …
Macranthropy is an allegorical concept that has historical roots in several ancient civilizations. The idea portrays the universe as a giant human body, with various cosmic elements represented as body parts. In Ancient India, the concept of macranthropy is embodied in the mahant-ātman or “vast self” of the Early and Middle periods. This concept has …
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster is a novel that explores the complex relationships between the British colonizers and the Indian people during the early 20th century. The novel is set in the fictional city of Chandrapore in British India, and it centers around the experiences of Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, …
Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play that has been regarded as one of his most significant works. The play was written in 1944 while Brecht was living in the United States, and it is an example of his epic theatre style. The play tells the story of a peasant girl who rescues …
The Violent Bear It Away is a novel by the American author Flannery O’Connor. The book, published in 1960, is a classic example of Southern Gothic literature. It tells the story of a young boy named Francis Marion Tarwater, who is trying to escape the destiny his uncle has prescribed for him. The novel is …
The Stone Raft is a novel by Portuguese writer José Saramago. It was published in 1986 and translated into English by Giovanni Pontiero in 1994. The premise of the book is that the Iberian Peninsula has broken off from the European continent and is floating freely in the Atlantic Ocean. The story follows the journey …