Clues to Identifying Allusions
If you saw this house in Switzerland, you might think you were seeing a couple standing on a balcony, but you’d soon realize that the couple and the balcony are painted onto the side of the house. This is an optical illusion.
Source: House with illusion in Rhäzüns Switzerland, Adrian Michael, Wikimedia Commons.
So, how do you identify allusions as you are reading? What are some clues?
- Allusions can be references to famous people and places, literary works, or historical events; so a proper (capitalized) noun might be a signal for an allusion.
- In addition to characters’ names (proper nouns), other Biblical allusions may be verses or parts of verses from chapters in the Bible. Authors may surround longer allusions with quotation marks, as Martin Luther King Jr. did in his speech.
- Some books even explain allusions at the bottom of text pages or in an index at the back of a book.
- Some allusions hare very common, almost trite expressions that you shouldn’t have trouble recognizing.
Finally, don’t confuse allusion with illusion. An illusion is an image that visually or intellectually misleads or deceives the viewer. Below are examples of how the word “illusion” can be used in sentences:
- The video game is designed to give the illusion that you are in control of an airplane.
- They used paint to create the illusion of metal.
- She says that all progress is just an illusion.
In a nutshell, an allusion can enhance; an illusion can mislead.