ALLUSION PROJECT

I N F R ANK EN S T E I N

ALLUSION -

• A reference, explicit or implicit, to a previous literature or

history that the author would expect the reader to know

• Purpose:

–Lets reader/viewer understand new information, characters,

plot, setting, etc. by connecting it to something already

known

–enriches a passage by inviting readers to make associations

that can deepen or broaden meaning

READERS UNAWARE OF ALLUSIONS WILL MISS INTENDED MEANINGS

• John Steinbeck’s Of Mice

and Men book title

alludes to Robert Burns’

poem “To a Mouse”

• Burns’ poem lines:

– The best laid

schemes of mice and

men

often go awry

(Standard English Version)

• Reason for allusion:

– Steinbeck is trying to

send the message,

through his title, that

things will not go as

the characters planned.

It foreshadows a not-

so-happy ending in

which dreams are

dashed.

ASSIGNMENT (MAJOR GRADE):On google slides (shared with the BUSH):

• 1st slide – title of work and author; names of group members

• 2nd slide – summary of the story your were assigned; you may only use

pictures on your summary slide. You may use note cards when

presenting.

• 3rd slide – explain the context and quote of the allusion in Frankenstein

• 4th slide – explain the significance of this allusion in Frankenstein

• 5th slide – are there any other allusions to your text? What are they?

Explain the allusion.

• 6th slide – Works cited page (all sites used and Frankenstein)

RUBRIC:Skill Points Available

Summary of your text: completely summarizes the main

points of the story; uses pictures beneficial to the

understanding of the story

25

Context of the allusion: presents the quoted allusion to

the class (with citation), explains the context of the

allusion,

30

Significance of allusion: elaborates on author’s purpose of

allusion specific to the context (how does this add to your

understanding of Frankenstein?)

30

Allusions to your text outside of Frankenstein: name of

work (movie, book, song…) and author, present allusion,

explain allusion

Ms. Bush’s eternal

gratitude and a

sticker!

Works Cited Page: lists all citations in correct MLA format 15

EXAMPLE – WORKS CITEDWorks Cited

Anderson, Sammae. Immunizations in America. New York: Health Central Publications, 1989. Print.

Ph. Gabriel Steg, et al. "Influence of polyvascular disease on cardiovascular event rates. Insights from the REACH Registry." Vascular Medicine

15.4 (2010): 259-265. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. http://web.ebscohost.com /ehost/

detail?hid=105&sid=9a0ab4e4-07ce-4e44-991970040ca97125%40sessionmgr113&vid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU 9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ

%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=53290645.

S. Nakamura, et al. "Multicentric Castleman’s disease representing effusion at initial clinical presentation: clinicopathological study of seven

cases." Lupus 20.1 (2011): 44-50. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detai

l?hid=105&sid=9a0ab4e4-07ce-4e44-9919-70040ca97125%40sessionmgr113&vid=4&bdata=

JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db =a9h&AN=57543497.

Basic Rules:• Follow MLA:

• Label the slide Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) • Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries; indent the second and subsequent lines of

citations five spaces so that you create a hanging indention• List in alpha-order by first word of the citation

ALLUSIONS IN FRANKENSTEIN:

• Creation of Adam and Eve

• Fall of Lucifer

• Prometheus

• Paradise Lost by John Milton

• “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• The Divine Comedy by Dante

• “Mutability” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

• “Tintern’s Abbey” by William Wordsworth

• “Old Familiar Faces” by Charles Lamb

• Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto

• Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron

• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

EXAMPLE: THE MATRIX

•Follow the white rabbit...

•Down the rabbit hole...

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

BY LEWIS CARROLL

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND-LEWIS CARROLL

ALICE IN WONDERLAND SUMMARY( F O R U N D E R S TA ND I NG O N LY - N O T A S L I D E I N T H E P R E S E N TAT I ON )

• Alice sits on a riverbank on a warm summer day, when she catches sight of a White Rabbit in a waistcoat running by her. The White Rabbit pulls out a pocket watch, exclaims that he is late, and pops down a rabbit hole. Alice chooses to follow the

White Rabbit down the hole.

• She finds a small door that she opens using a key she discovers on a nearby table. But, Alice begins to cry when she realizesshe cannot fit through the door. She finds a bottle marked “DRINK ME” and downs the contents. She shrinks down to the right size to enter the door but cannot enter since she has left the key on the tabletop above her head. Alice discovers a cake marked “EAT ME” which causes her to grow to an inordinately large height. Still unable to enter the garden, Alice begins to cry again, and her giant tears form a pool at her feet. It takes her a while to get the right size and move on.

• She wanders off into the forest, where she meets a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and smoking a hookah (i.e., a water pipe). The Caterpillar and Alice get into an argument, but before the Caterpillar crawls away in disgust, he tells Alice thatdifferent parts of the mushroom will make her grow or shrink. Alice tastes a part of the mushroom, and her neck stretches above the trees.

• The Cheshire Cat explains to Alice that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including Alice herself. The Cheshire Cat gives directions to the March Hare’s house and fades away to nothing but a floating grin.

• Alice travels to the March Hare’s house to find the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse having tea together.

• After saving several gardeners from the temper of the Queen of Hearts, Alice joins the Queen in a strange game of croquet. The croquet ground is hilly, the mallets and balls are live flamingos and hedgehogs, and the Queen tears about, frantically calling for the other player’s executions.

• The Queen becomes furious with Alice and orders her beheading, but Alice grows to a huge size and knocks over the Queen’s army of playing cards.

• All of a sudden, Alice finds herself awake on her sister’s lap, back at the riverbank. She tells her sister about her dream and goes inside for tea as her sister ponders Alice’s adventures.

CONTEXT:

• The Matrix uses the phrase, “follow the white rabbit” and

then presents a tattoo of a white rabbit. Neo has to

make a decision as to whether to join the people with

the “white rabbit” or not.

• This alludes to Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland where Alice makes the choice to follow the

white rabbit down the rabbit hole.

SIGNIFICANCE:

• The parallel between the two stories is with the main characters making the

choice whether to “follow the white rabbit” or not.

• By understanding the allusion to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the audience is

able to predict the journey Neo is beginning without the movie having to waste

any time explaining it.

– First, the allusion allows the audience to understand that Neo is making the

choice to enter a new “world.”

– Understanding the allusion, also, means knowing that the world Neo is

entering has no rules and will be different to everything we “know,” hence

foreshadowing that everything Neo experiences will be pushing the limits of

what the audience will believe also.