1. Allusion
Essential Question: How can Allusions help us to better understand a story and it’s characters?

2. Quick write- What is in a name?
Do you like your name? Why or why not? What is the story of how your parents chose your name? Are you named after someone? Do you think that our names say anything about us as people? Explain.

3. Allusion
An allusion is a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.
Writers usually do not explain their allusions. They expect that their readers will be familiar with the things to which they refer.

4. Purpose
We, as readers, need to know what allusions are so we can identify them in our reading.
We need to be able to recognize allusions in the books we read because they are usually important in our overall understanding of the book.
For example, if the name of a character was an allusion to a different character in another literary work, that similarity could reveal something about the character that we wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t found the allusion.

5. Allusion vs. Illusion
The noun allusion means "an indirect reference to a person, event, or thing."
Illusion is a noun that means "false or misleading impression of reality.”

6. Types of Allusions
Biblical: referring to the Bible or a religious work
Mythological: referring to characters or events of Greek and Roman Mythology.
Literary: referring to another literary work
Historical: referring to an event in history
Contemporary: referring to a character in a contemporary show or movie.

7. Sometimes, I feel like Atlas-carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

8. I am afraid of spiders, but I'm no cowardly lion!

9. She had the wisdom of Athena and the beauty of Aphrodite.

10. My friends and I were the real three stooges because we were horsing around and pushing and shoving each other.

11. Her smile was shy but coy
Her smile was shy but coy. It reminded me of a more famous smile that I once saw on a painting…

12. Try to identify the allusions below…

13. Biblical allusions in The Giver
Jonas
The name Jonas is a reminder of the biblical Jonah of the Old Testament.
Jonah is sent by God to speak out against Nineveh, a wicked city filled with sin.
Jonah does not do as God says and sails away.

14. God creates a big storm, and the crew of the ship throw Jonah overboard.
He is swallowed by a whale and while in the belly of the Whale he thinks about hi disobedience.
The name Jonah means “bringer of bad luck.”

15. Biblical Allusions in The Giver
2. Gabriel
One of the two angels named in the Bible
His name means “strong man of God”
Gabriel is God’s messenger sent to earth
Gabriel announced the birth of baby Jesus

16. Prediction
Based on your knowledge now of the stories of Jonah and Gabriel, what can you predict about the characters of Jonas and Gabriel in The Giver? What significance does the fact that these names allude to stories in the bible have? Explain.