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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Allusions
Explanation and Analysis—Uncle Tom's Cabin:
On the dedication page of 12 Years a Slave, Solomon includes a quote from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The passage he pulls from the book is the one in which Stowe references Solomon's story:
“It is a singular coincidence, that Solomon Northup was carried to a plantation in the Red River country‒that same region where the scene of Uncle Tom’s captivity was laid‒and his account of this plantation, and the mode of life there, and some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—"Quadroon":
When Solomon introduces his wife, Anne, at the beginning of his memoir, he describes her as resembling a “quadroon." This is an allusion to the racial classification system in use at the time:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Anne] is not able to determine the exact line of her descent, but the blood of three races mingles in her veins. It is difficult to tell whether the red, white, or black predominates. The union of them all, however, in her origin, has given her a singular but pleasing expression, such as is rarely to be seen. Though somewhat resembling, yet she cannot properly be styled a quadroon, a class to which, I have omitted to mention, my mother belonged.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Kidnapped in the Capital:
That Solomon ends up being kidnapped while visiting the nation’s capital—the symbol of freedom and democracy—is an example of situational irony. He notes the irony of this as he is being transferred from the slave pen to the ship that takes him to Louisiana (the passage also contains an allusion to the song "Hail, Columbia"):
Unlock with LitCharts A+So we passed, hand-cuffed and in silence, through the streets of Washington—through the Capital of a nation, whose theory of government, we are told, rests on the foundation of man’s inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! Hail! Columbia, happy land, indeed!
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Bible:
Throughout 12 Years a Slave, Solomon makes it clear that Christianity has been warped by slaveowners in order to justify the ways that they treat enslaved people. In one example of this, Ford’s brother-in-law Peter Tanner reads the Bible to the people he enslaves and emphasizes verse Luke 12:47:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When he came to the 47th verse, he looked deliberately around him, and continued—“And that servant which knew his lord’s will,”—here he paused, looking around more deliberately than before, and again proceeded—“which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself”—here was another pause—“prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—The Dec. of Independence:
The Declaration of Independence is alluded to a couple different times in 12 Years a Slave, including in a conversation between Epps and Bass, when Bass tries to make a point about the immorality of slavery:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Look here, Epps,” continued his companion; “you can’t laugh me down in that way. Some men are witty, and some ain’t so witty as they think they are. Now let me ask you a question. Are all men created free and equal as the Declaration of Independence holds they are?”
Related Themes:
