Allegory, Moral and Symbolism

What is an allegory? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an allegory is “a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.” In other words, an allegory will have a message that it is trying to convey to its reader You will see an example of an allegorical story in tomorrow’s class, when we read Bunting’s Terrible Things. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/allegory

A moral is the thing that is to be learned from a story. So then, what is a moral? A moral is the thing that is to be learned from a story. It’s the big “take away” of a story.

For example… in a movie like Jurassic Park ***MAKE SURE TO VIEW IN SLIDE SHOW MODE TO SEE EMBEDDED VIDEO CLIP**** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHGHkGmOmD4

Moral Continued… So while the moral of Jurassic Park may not be that men create dinosaurs and get eaten so that women can inherit the Earth, the moral does seem to be something more along the lines of: Men should not play God; because men destroyed God. So whatever we create is bound to destroy us in turn. Nice message, right?

And finally, symbolism This is when an author or artist uses symbols to represent other items or ideas. We will specifically be looking at the use of colors as symbolism in tomorrow’s class We will be looking at art, reading a children’s book with illustrations, and then you will be asked to create your own picture book in groups.

That is all for this mini-lesson! Have a nice night and happy reading!