The Blinding Sun: An Introduction to Allegory

Shadows on the Wall

Imagine your entire life up until now has been spent in a cold and dark cave. It is all you’ve ever known, and you’ve spent your days chained to the ground, watching shadows move upon the cave wall. You’ve seen the shadows of a horse, a man, a tree, and many other things. You’ve spent your life believing that these shadows are the real thing –– that they really are a horse, a man, a tree, living as dark shapes on the wall. One day, you are freed from your shackles and are able to turn and look into the light pouring in from the mouth of the cave. You wander towards it and out into the blinding sun. Your eyes, having only ever known the dark of the cave, take a while to adjust. When you are finally able to see clearly again, you see before you a horse, a man, a tree, and many other things. You see their color, their texture, their depth, the way the light glints off of them. You see the strands of hair and the veins in the leaves. You finally see them for what they really, truly are. You finally understand what the shadows are –– the absence of light, abstract shapes, mere representations of reality. The entirety of your life, before this moment, now feels as if it were all a lie. Now that you know the truth, you can never go back to the cave.

That story is an allegory. It was first told by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. What is an allegory? An allegory is a story that possesses a hidden meaning which, through interpretation, reveals a broader message. It’s a story that’s more than just a story. For example, by telling this story about the cave, Plato was trying to convey how we go about our lives largely in ignorance of the world outside of ourselves and beyond what we perceive. Plato wanted us to know that often, when we finally find enlightenment and truth, we cannot go back to the lives of ignorance we led before.

How an allegory works

Think of an allegory as a story operating on two levels at the same time. It has a literal meaning: what is actually taking place in the story, the characters, the setting and the plot; but it also has a figurative meaning: who or what the characters, setting and plot might represent. Think of an allegory as a metaphor but on a much grander scale. While a metaphor is used to compare one thing to another, an allegory often uses many connected metaphors which, together, help the author tackle complex issues in culture, society, and politics. Allegories are powerful and their strength lies in the ability of a reader to draw a comparison between two seemingly different elements. Marching hammers, for example, might feature as a stand-in for hardened soldiers in an allegorical war story. Allegories are often full of symbolism. By using allegories, we can take big, complicated ideas and distill them into simple tales that are easier to interpret once we understand the hidden meaning. Plato’s allegory helped create the foundation of western philosophy, which guides and shapes much of the world today.

The different types of allegory

Allegories, like any sort of storytelling, come in many different shapes and sizes. One of the most popular forms of allegory is that of the fable. A fable is an allegory that usually uses animals as characters, in order to impart a moral on the audience. Perhaps the most famous fable is that of The Tortoise and the Hare, whose moral is that the slow and steady person wins the race. 

Another sort of allegory is the parable. A parable usually seeks to convey a message on morality or spirituality through its story. One well known Christian parable is that of the “Prodigal Son.” It tells the story of a runaway son who has squandered his father’s money. He eventually returns to his father, and intends to repay his debt by becoming his father’s servant. However, the father welcomes him home with a feast and a hug. The moral to the story is that it is never too late for redemption if you seek forgiveness. Another famous parable is that of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, whose message is that if you constantly lie, no one will believe you when you finally tell the truth.

All types of allegories reveal a deeper message, moral, or lesson through their stories. Allegories can often be a blend of fable and parable, such as L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, whose story tells us that no matter how far or wide you roam, in the end there is no place like home. 

Allegories as activism

Allegories can also serve as an important tool to fight back against tyranny and oppression. Authors sometimes used their stories to address what they believed to be wrongdoing and injustice by those in power. They seek to inspire others to their cause and bring about change through their writing.

One such allegory is John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan was a Calvanist preacher in England in the 1600s. He was jailed by the government for his nonconformist beliefs, during which time he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. The book, published in 1678, is a Christian allegory that symbolizes the Christian’s pilgrimage through life, and was written by Bunyan to outline his beliefs, as well as to critique the English government’s persecution. 

The American playwright Arthur Miller used his allegorical play, The Crucible, to critique the U.S. government’s persecution of people’s political beliefs in the 1950s. The Crucible is set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693. Miller used this period and setting to tell a story that compared the fanaticism of the puritans in Salem to the United States government’s persecution of people who were accused of being communists.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm, perhaps the most famous and widely read allegory of the last century, was written as a warning about how idealistic revolutions, like the Russian Revolution of 1917, can eventually lead to tyranny. Orwell, distraught by the rise of totalitarianism, wrote a story in which farm animals take over their farm and kick out the farmer. These animals seek to create a more harmonious and equal society for all the animals on the farm. However, the pig Napoleon, an allegorical representation of the former Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, soon comes to dominate life on the farm, controlling it with an iron hoof, and life seems to become worse on the farm than it ever was under the farmer.

Today, Animal Farm is taught in schools all over the world and has sold millions of copies. This is a testament to the power of allegories and how, through their subtle and sometimes not so subtle meaning, they can help change the world.