Refresher and More Examples of Allusions

Today's class began as a refresher of what an allusion does.

Allusions help to... 

- Define an Audience: What group of people will understand this reference?

- Reward the Audience: People will feel a sense of satisfaction when they understand the reference (almost like an inside joke)

- Reinforce Themes: References most of the time go along with the theme/argument of a text or possibly just a topic the author/director is trying to convey

To help us with understanding the differences of topic and theme when addressing allusions, we were shown the example of Auto (the robot from Wall-E) versus HAL 9000 (the robot from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Some of the topics groups came up with for these movies were technology, control, and emotions. Then, after the class settled upon a topic they liked the most, each group wrote a theme to go along with it. For example, one theme both movies convey with their artificial intelligence is "Humanity's dependence on machines has allowed machines to control mankind".  

Another allusion we looked at that was found in Wall-E was the song "It Only Takes a Moment" from the 1969 musical Hello, Dolly!. Again, groups were asked to find topics and convert one of those topics into a theme. The topic my group chose was nostalgia, as Hello, Dolly! is from the 1960's and the lyrics contain remarks about time. So, the theme we came up with was "Nostalgia helps cope with a dreadful present". 

Finally, to conclude class, we took what we learned about allusions and themes and tried to find allusions in our class reading book Ready Player One. We were asked to write on note cards what quote from the book contains the reference, a tone the reference conveys, and either write about the reward the audience gets from the allusion, definition of the audience, or a theme the allusion conveys.

Although allusions can not exist in the real world (since technically the real world is the allusion), the use of allusions will always help audiences to learn and discover. When a movie or book makes an allusion, it forces people to step out of the fiction realm and into non-fiction reality. It helps readers and watchers understand the world they are living in as well as shows how they can help make the world the better place, or simply just how they can appreciate the world.