1. digging deeper into the story
Allegory
digging deeper into the story

2. What is Allegory? An allegory is a story with 2 levels of meaning.
The first level is the surface meaning: plot, characters, setting, etc.
The second level is the symbolic meaning, deeper meaning of the surface-level elements.
An allegory is similar to a giant metaphor, which can be political, historical, philosophical, etc.

3. Key Words: audience rhetoric metaphor symbol theme imagery
Stop and do activities around symbolism and theme

4. Examples:
We’re going to look at 2 major examples of allegory related to World War II: JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle.
But first, some background on WWII...

5. Harry Potter as an allegory of WWII

6. Lord Voldemort/Adolf Hitler
Orphaned
History of disappointment (Hogwarts/Art School)
“Half Blood” (Part Muggle/Part Jewish)
Obsession with blood purity (Anti-Muggle/Anti-Semitic)

7. Deatheaters/Nazi Soldiers
dark mark : swastika
inner circle of followers
feared by all

8. Albus Dumbledore/Winston Churchill
Authority figures
had alarmist views and were shunned by the public for them (warning of Voldemort’s return/warning of Hitler’s power)

9. Rita Skeeter & the Daily Prophet/War Propaganda

10. Dr. Seuss

11. Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle

12. Can you see Dr. Seuss’ story as an allegory of WW2?
What symbols or metaphors do you see?
Could Yertle the Turtle be an allegory of something else?
Write questions in notebooks before we watch the video.