ALLUSION

A reference to a well-known person, place, event (history), literary work (book or poem), work of art, or object.

“Rene has a Peter Griffin laugh.”

From Family Guy

§ If you who Peter Griffin is, then you know that he has an annoying laugh.

§ Therefore, you know how Rene in the sample sentence laughs.

“Rene has a Peter Griffin laugh.”

§ Allusions activate prior knowledge and help the reader understand the text.

§ However, not all allusions are clear. § Sometimes the reader has to work to understand the allusion.

From Family Guy

Look at the word the blocks create. “Redrum”

The word “redrum” first appears in the movie The Shining.

Family Guy

The Shining

§ Allusions are NOT references to someone or something only a small group of people know.

§ So this is not an allusion: “Sally’s smile looked like my mom’s smile.”

§ Lets the reader understand new information, characters, plot, setting, etc. by connecting it to something already known.

§ Contributes to theme and/or characterization.

JUAN GABRIEL VÁSQUEZ’S

Bogotá, Colombia -– Antonio Yammara, a college professor, befriends Ricardo Laverde, a recently released prisoner.

One day, Laverde comes into possession of a cassette tape and seeks Yammara’s help listening to it.

Casa de Poesía, a cultural center housed in “the former residence of the poet José Asunción Silva.”

NOCTURNE José Asunción Silva (1865-1896) One night, One night all full of murmurs, of perfumes and the brush of wings, Within whose mellow nuptial glooms there shone fantastic fireflies, Meekly at my side, slender, hushed and pale, As though with infinite presentiment of woe Your very depths of being were troubled,-- By the path of flowers that led across the plain, You came treading [ . . . ]

Gabriel Vásquez uses this allusion to “Nocturne” to characterize the novel’s characters and foreshadow death.

Thesis

For Laverde, “Nocturne” reflects his hollow existence.

Topic Sentence

Laverde’s cassette tape contains the black box recording of a crashed plane – his wife’s.

“I noticed that Ricardo Laverde was crying. [ . . . ] [Laverde] wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, then his sleeve, with murmurs and music of wings [ . . . ] [he] brought his hands together like someone praying. And your shadow, lean and languid (Vásquez 38).”

From “Nocturne”

In “Nocturne,” the speaker copes with the death of his lover, the very same thing Laverde does. However…

“I noticed that Ricardo Laverde was crying. [ . . . ] [Laverde] wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, then his sleeve, with murmurs and music of wings [ . . . ] [he] brought his hands together like someone praying. And your shadow, lean and languid (Vásquez 38).”

And your shadow 11 Languid, delicate; And my shadow, Sketched by the white moonlight's ray Upon the solemn sands 15

Of the path, were joined together, As one together,

From “Nocturne”

Laverde meets his fate.

The Sound of Things Falling

Silva, José Asunción. “Nocturne.” Poetry Archive. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Vásquez, Juan Gabriel. The Sound of Things Falling. New York: Riverhead, 2013. Print.