Research Paper Writing Tip AAA: Allegory, Allusion, Archetype

Q: This is for a research paper that I am writing. I'm looking at the definition of "allegory" and the model they mention is the novel "Pilgrim's Progress." That also is one of the books the teacher suggested we use, but I just barely got through that novel and I don't think I understood it very well. I would like to use your novel to write my paper. I found it easier to understand than "PP" and I liked it so much I finished it in one day. Could you please explain your definition of "allegory?" How do you use them in "Every Boy Should Have a Man?" Can I quote you in my paper?

A: Flattery will get you everywhere, young man. Young woman? Sami? I am an English teacher myself, a professor actually, so I don't know how much I should tell you about my own novel, Sami, except to say thank you for reading and enjoying it. That's why I wrote it. To be enjoyed.

Hmmmmm. So how do I explain "allegory," give you a few juicy, quotable lines for your assignment, all the while withholding spoilers for those who have not yet read the novel? Am I up to the task? Let's see. Allegory.

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Well, I see an allegory as the meat of one story laid over the bones of another. It must be eaten on two levels—the succulent meat above and the tougher bones and skeleton beneath.

While you’re enjoying the story above, you might feel that there is something going on here. This seems familiar. Have I read this before? Have I been told this? What is the nature of this bone that I’m chewing on? What is this marrow?

Chew that bone. Suck out and swallow that marrow, for therein resides the message.

It is often a religious one—sometimes political, sometimes a retelling of history. Its nearest literary kin is "analogy."

It’s a narrative paralleling another, more familiar narrative that is buried deeply, and thus perhaps forgotten.

In that way, then, the basic structure of "Every Boy Should Have a Man" is threefold allegoric:

(1) It is the creation story as told with giants—what the bible calls the "Nephilim." The famous giant Goliath is one of them, or rather related to one:

**"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:4 KJV)**

Goliath was actually a mixed breed—half, angel/half man—and therefore he loomed head and shoulders above other men as a giant.

**“And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” (1 Samuel 17:4 KJV)**

Thus, he had the proportions of a gargantuan human being.

Quite a few bible stories appear in the novel. In fact, among them appears a retelling of “Samson” as well as “Noah’s Ark.” A key one is “The Tower of Babel.”

The Nephilim is the archetypical giant being: fearsome, conflicted, of religious origin, and quite human.

**“Indeed, some among the educated say that mans are related to us. Some go so far as to speculate that we are descended from them. That they are an unevolved form of us. Or that from the mixing of their blood and angels’, came we.” (Every Boy Should Have a Man 45)**

If you miss this key allusion, the book is written in such a way that it won’t hurt your reading and enjoyment of the narrative.

There are many hints and allusions indicating that the giant oafs in the novel are angelic beings: their realm is above the biblical firmament; it can be reached by climbing the remnant steps of the Tower of Babel; they tower over normal humans; they call their god the “Great Creator”; their holy book is called “Great Scripture.”

(2) It is also a retelling that is scientific: paleontological; archeological; biological.

It is the history of human kind according to Darwinian theory. As evolutionary theory once upon a time did claim, no two species of humans ever existed on earth at the same time. They all proceeded single file down a line of evolutionary transformation that ended with us—homo sapiens.

Recently, however, there has come to light indisputable paleontological evidence indicating that there was a time on earth (20,000 to 30,000 years ago) when two types of humans occupied the same island off the coast of New Zealand.

The two types of humans are classified as the gigantic "homo heidelbergensis," which we have ironically nicknamed “Goliath”; and a smaller one "Homo Floresiensis," which we nicknamed “Hobbit.” The question in my book is what the two species night have thought of each other. Would each recognize the humanness of the other? If not, would one see the other as food?

(3) It is also a retelling that is much like a Fairytale. Fairytales. Ah. In the novel there are too many to count, but an important one is “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Rufus behaves in many ways like the archetypical trickster figure Jack, right down to the stealing of the small singing harp as well as making trip after trip to plunder loot from the oafs (to him they are giants). Also note that the novel’s main protagonist, the female man named Red Locks, calls Rufus a rascal as he rescues her by climbing down the remnant stairs (his beanstalk) to our world and all its woes.

All that being said, the novel should be read the way I hope you will read it: without considering any of the aforementioned literary technique and application. Read it for its beauty, the elegance of its narrative, its simple truths, its poignant scenes of action, of heroism, of hope. Read it for its great characters and its humor. Read it because you want to see what happens next. Read it because it is a page turner that you can’t put down. Later on after you go to sleep and you are haunted in your dreams by the questions raised by the book, read this humble English major’s analysis of it.

I hope this helps, Sami.

Thanks,

Preston L. Allen, 20 September 2013