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When I shmoop, you shmoop, we shmoop... Which of the following statements about allegory is true?

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And here are the potential answers:

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So... what is this question asking?

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Yup -- ALLEGORY is the $5 vocab word of the day.

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Oh yeah... one of those things that keeps eating small dogs in southern Florida, right?

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Uh... no. An allegory is just a kind of comparison that has a pattern.

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Such and such, which is like A, is compared with such and such, which is really like B.

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The song London Bridge -- which refers to a bridge falling down due to a union labor

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strike -- is commonly cited as an allegory of the decline of England from greatness to mediocrity.

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Allegories have a lot of freedom -- they don't HAVE TO be a poem -- so A is wrong.

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Talking animals are cute... but they don't have to be an allegory. So we can cross off

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B.

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An allegory can be about a historical event, as in the case of London Bridge... but not

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a requirement. Adios to choice C.

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But what about B? It's pretty much a LITERAL definition of allegory.

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"An allegorical work has an underlying figurative meaning and takes symbolism a step further."

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So our answer is B

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