1. ALLUSION

2. DEFINITION: An ALLUSION is a reference to a famous person, historical moment, literary text, or pop culture event/person/thing. In a broad sense—it is a reference to something that is (or should be) culturally known. ALLUSIONS are used in literature all the time to help make cultural connections to the reader as well as to ‘say a lot’ with fewer words.

3. TYPES OF ALLUSIONS Mythology: Achilles‘ Heel, Cupid, Pandora’s Box Biblical: Cain and Abel, Good Samaritan, Forbidden Fruit Literature: Scrooge, Jekyll and Hyde, Romeo Historical: Benedict Arnold, Utopia, Nazi

4. PURPOSE? Allusions Culturally Connect Us! If we do not understand an allusion we cannot understand the author.

5. EXAMPLES: WHAT IS BEING SAID THROUGH THESE ALLUSIONS?

6. "Sea of the Rivers of Story" is the English equivalent of Kathāsaritsāgara, the title of an 11th-century collection of Indian legends. Another obvious reference is to the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. Haroun, the son of Rashid Khalifa refers to Harun al-Rashid, a caliph who ruled from 786 to 809 and who features frequently in Thousand and One Nights stories. The Walrus plays off of The Beatles song, "I am the Walrus". Haroun encounters a warrior who is fighting his own shadow. This is possible a reference to J.M Barrie's Peter Pan.

7. ALICE IN WONDERLAND The Walrus The Pages as compared to the Queen and her Court (cards) ~ both are extended metaphors used in similar wayscards The Language of wordplay, puns, and seeming nonsense. Time, especially time stopped (The Mad Tea Party and the word- play involving time).

8. THEY WANT EFX What allusions must you recognize in order to understand the song? What is Das Efx’s (the rapper) purpose? What is trying to say though these allusions?

9. THE TWILIGHT STRIP The Twilight Zone In pairs, discuss the history of The Gaza Strip. How does this influence your understanding of The Twilight Strip? What is Rushdie saying through this allusion?

11. SOUND FAMILIAR? Jimmy Cross (JC), suffers for the sake of the entire platoon. Cross bears the grief of Lavender’s death for the members of his troop. Cross makes a sacrifice so that his fellow men— Norman Bowker and Kiowa, in this case—can carry on without being crippled by grief and guilt.

12. JIMMY CROSS AS A CHRIST FIGURE? Jimmy Cross (JC)is in charge of and watches over a group of men, similar to Jesus and his apostles Jimmy Cross suffers for his platoon, similar to Jesus suffering for his disciplines, and all of mankind. The only characters that are directly identified as friends of Jesus in the Gospel of John are Martha, Mary, and Lazarus: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” John 11:5 Why might O’Brien be comparing Cross to Christ? What is being said about Cross?