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Literary Devices
Definition of Allegory
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The Tortoise and The Hare" is... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. The story of "The... read full definition
An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and... read full definition
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Paradise Lost:
Equiano alludes to John Milton's Paradise Lost several times. In Chapter 5, he paraphrases a passage from it in a way that suggests an allegorical relationship between slavery and the divine war depicted in the epic poem:
Are you not hourly in dread of an insurrection? Nor would it be surprising: for when
No peace is given
To us enslav’d, but custody severe;
And stripes and arbitrary punishment
Inflicted—What peace can we return?
But to our power, hostility and hate,
Untam’d reluctance, and revenge, tho’ slow,
Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least
May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice
In doing what we most in suffring feel? MILTON.
Related Themes:
