An Allusion A Day

AP LANG

Catch-22

• Novel By Jospeh Heller

• World War II

• There is no way to avoid

• Absurd no-win situation

Lot’s Wife/Pillar of Salt

• Book of Genesis (Bible)

• Sodom and Gomorrah

• told to not to look back

• wife turned into a pillar of salt (punishment of disobedience)

• unwisely chooses to look back disobeying an explicit role or command

Let the cat out of the Bag/ Buy a Pig in a Poke

• Medieval Time

• piglets to market in a bag known as a “poke”

• cat in the bag instead of a pig

• (if cat escaped), the farmer’s secret would be revealed

• pig in the poke

• secret being revealed “letting the cat out of the bag “

• buying something sight unseen “buying a pig in the poke ”

Burning Bush

• Exodus, God speak to Moses

• burns but is not consumed

• God asks Moses to confront Pharoah

• Free the Israelites

• Led the people to the Promised Land

• medium through which the voice of absolute authority speaks

Noble Savage

• Western Philosophy

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• born good and innocent

• Influences from civilization cause them to lose goodness and innocence.

• “a person who has not been corrupted by society or civilization”

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

• Andy Warhol

• American artist famous for his pop-art

• media coverage

• everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes

• “receives a great deal of media attention for something fairly trivial”

Skeleton in the Closet

• skeleton remains

• Unpleasant or frightening to look at

• unpleasant or embarrassing things about a person that he or she would prefer to keep hidden away

A Chip on One’s Shoulder

• Young boys would place a wood chip on their shoulders

• dare anyone to knock it off and thus start a fight

• how tough someone is

• looking for an excuse to fight

Loaves and Fishes

• Gospels of the Bible

• Jesus preaching to a crowd of thousands

• five loaves and two fish

• Jesus blessed the food

• food left over after everyone had been fed

• “miraculous abundance in the face of seeming scarcity “

White Elephant

• rarity

• special

• not subject to being beast of burden and toil

• Siam (now Thailand)

• King Siam

• very costly

• gifts to those who displeased him

• Brought financial ruin to the recipient of the “gift”

• No use to its owner and may even represent a financial burden

Fiddle While Rome Burns

• Roman emperor Nero

• a fire

• Nero showed complete indifference playing his violin or fiddle, during the emergency

• disregard for the hardship

• display indifference in the midst of an emergency or disaster

Left Hand Compliment

• something negative

• awkward, clumsy, or doubtful sincerity

• sinister side

• despite being a compliment, is insulting or rude in some way

Golden Calf

• Book of Exodus, Moses

• Mount Sinai

• ten commandments

• people melt down their jewelry and ornaments and made a calf out of the gold

• worshiped the gold calf

• Moses becomes angered seeing the people worshipping the idol

• Moses breaks the stone tables which the Ten commandments were written

• “Idol or any object, especially a material object that is worshiped even though it is not worthy of any worship “

Non Sequitur

• Latin

• It does not follow

• Unrelated to what has been said before

The Emperor’s new clothes

• Hans Christian Anderson’s story

• Tailors

• Invisible to a person who is stupid or unfit for office

• Swindlers

• Pretends to admire them

• Grand parade for the whole town

• No one will admit they cannot see the “clothes”

• Small child shouts out the truth

• “ someone like a small child, pointing out the falseness pretentiousness of something, especially, when others are afraid to admit the truth”

NIMBY

• Not in my back yard

• “ While people may be aware of the necessity of some of some unpleasant reality, such as prisons, landfills or chemical plants, they insist that these places be located away from where they live

Waterloo

• Battle in 1815 (now Belgium)

• Final battle in the Napoleonic wars

• Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated

• To suffer an ultimate, decisive defeat

Bread and Circuses

• writer during the time of the Roman Empire

• Imperial government was able to keep the populace merely by distributing free food and providing entertaining spectacles

• fights in the Colosseum between people or between people and animals

• easily kept in line

• “Policies designed to prevent unrest by keeping people happy and thus deflecting concern about troubling issues. “

Icarus/Fly too Close to the Sun

• Greek mythology

• father Daedalus

• island of Crete

• wings constructed by Daedalus

• Wings were held by means of wax

• Daedalus warned Icarus to not fly too close to the Sun

• wax melted, and he fell to his death

• “To fail or be destroyed because of lack of caution or excessive ambition “

Thirty Pieces of Silver/ Betrayed with a Kiss

• Bible, Judas Iscariot was the disciple wo betrayed Jesus to the authorities

• exchange of payment

• identifies Jesus with a kiss of identification

• “Payment received for an act of treachery “

• “Supposed friend’s treachery “

Sound and Fury

• Shakespeare’s Macbeth

• Signify Nothing

• “Great, tumultuous, and passionate uproar that actually is unimportant or meaningless“

All the Glitters is not Gold

• proverb derived from a Latin translation of Aristotle

• “Something which appears valuable on the outside, may in fact be less than valuable. Appearances can be deceiving. “

Ivory Tower

• poet, Alfred de Vigny shut himself

• 18^th century fairy tales

• unreachable place

• come to have negative connotations

• “A person who is secluded or protected frown the real world and thus out of touch with reality. “

Pearls before Swine

• Sermon on the Mount, Jesus

• “Cast not your pearls before swine “

• “Who would appreciate it, not those incapables of appreciating something of value”

• “Offer something precious to someone, or a group of people, unable to appreciate the values of they are given. “

Read the Riot Act

• English Common Law

• before action could be taken

• “Issue a stern warning that if unacceptable behavior does not cease, severe consequences will follow. “

Sirens

• Greek mythology

• sea creatures who lured sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores

• singing a beautiful, irresistible song

• “anything that tempts a person away from safety and toward a destructive path”

Crocodile Tears

• shed large tears before devouring their prey

• no real feelings or sympathy

• “To show false sympathy for someone “

Achilles’ Heel

• Greek Mythology

• dipped in the River Styx

• Waters from this river gave immortality

• His mother held him by the heel

• the heel was the most vulnerable area

• “Refer to a person’s area of particular vulnerability”

Crossing the Rubicon

• After defeating the Gauls in the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar was ordered home

• Rubicon river formed the northern boundary of Italy

• led his army across the river

• no turning back after crossing the river

• “Take an irreversible step, often involving some danger. “

Pound of Flesh

• Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice

• Shylock a moneylender

• a pound of Antonio’s flesh

• ships are lost at the sea, Shylock insist that he must have a pound of flesh, as the contract demand

• “Describe someone’s insistence on being repaid, even if repayment will destroy or harm the debtor. “