24.2 The Story of Christ in Literature

Before I start, as I always do with this kind of thing, I need to point out a couple things.

1. If I am going to teach about allusion, I am going to have to discuss the Jewish Bible (The Old Testament) and the Christian Bible (The New Testament). They are easily the two most alluded to works in human history.

2. By discussing these stories, I make no claim about them as religious stories; I am speaking only as their status as important stories in human history, the most important set of stories in human history. I have no interest in altering your personal beliefs about any religion in the slightest.


That said, I think this is interesting.

If you want to allude to a different story in your own story, it makes sense to favor a certain kind of story. You want the story to which you refer to be pretty well known, otherwise too many people won't recognize you for making an allusion. You can allude to anything that you want of course, but if you pick things that people haven't heard of, you run the risk of excluding them (and their money). You would also prefer to refer to a story that people think is good or important. An allusion lets the reader make a comparison between two stories - it most often says that the two stories are similar in theme. If you pick a bad or unimportant story to allude to, you are risking saying that your own story is bad or unimportant. As an analogy, if you want to compliment somebody's appearance by comparing them to somebody else, you should pick a famous, celebrated, good-looking person.

So, hopefully, we can understand that the stories most alluded to in Western culture are going to be the most famous, important, and popular stories. I personally cannot think of a better place to start than the life of Jesus. Many, many people in Western culture believe that hearing the story of Christ's life actually saves their souls. It's as well-known, as important, and as interesting as any story ever told.

Where can you see allusions to the life of Christ, once you understand where to look for them? Let's start by reviewing the The Giver. A boy, Jonas (five letters, J---S) is different from his peers. He sees the world in a truer, deeper way. An angelic little boy named Gabriel arrives and announces that big things are about to happen. Jones mets an old guy with a long white beard who tells him that, first, he's different and special from everybody else, and, second, that he's going to have to undergo great pain and suffering in order to save everybody else from that pain and suffering. Jonas gradually comes to understand that love is the key to saving his community, and that he must sacrifice himself in order so that the rest of the community might live.

Do This: Read the short story linked here, "Christmas Day in the Morning" by Pearl Buck. First, write a Five Finger summary of it. Then, make a list of the allusions that you can find. Remember that an illusion is any hinted reference to another story, usually a famous one with the same theme.