History Main / Allegory

{{Sub Trope}}s:

!Examples

* [[Creator/RaphaelSanzio Raphael]]'s four paintings in the Signatura room of the Papal Palace represent the four greatest human pursuits:

** ''The School of Athens'' represents philosophy by putting Creator/{{Plato}}, Creator/{{Aristotle}}, and every other pagan philosopher in a huge dialogue in an imagined academy of wisdom.

* Being one of the first paintings of the Symbolist Movement (a movement that focuses on the interior self by its very design), ''Art/TheSin'' was deliberately made to symbolize the nature of sin. [[BiblicalMotifs Based off of Eve (a woman in Abrahamic religions was responsible for introducing original sin to mankind) and the snake that tempted her (the beast that introduced and tempted Eve into it)]], the woman's nude physique acts as a lure to the viewer while the snake is ready to strike, partially hidden in her hair and shadows. This is symbolic of the nature of sin; an attractive thing that tempts you into accepting it, only to corrupt and poison you.

* [[WordOfGod According to]] Creator/TakashiYanase, his children's book ''Chirin no Suzu'' ([[Anime/RingingBell Chirin's Bell]]) is an allegory [[WarIsHell for the effects of war]] (notably UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) and the negative side effects for victims. [[SavageWolf Woe/Wor the wolf]] is a personification of War, and [[SweetSheep Chirin]] representing innocent victims and civilians of war (notably orphaned children who lost parents and family members). As a result, the book and animated film is sometimes labelled as an "Anti-War Film" without any references to warfare.

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WorldOfSymbolism is a SubTrope in which the Allegory ''only'' makes sense on the [[RuleOfSymbolism metaphorical level]] and not the [[MindScrew literal one]]. AllegoryAdventure is a SubTrope in which the plot is an allegory for another work of fiction. BeastFable is another common form: just use various animals as an allegory for segments of human society. AllegoricalCharacter is the character-specific SubTrope, where the character represents something.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Neptunia}} Hyperdimesnion Neptunia]]'' is an allegory for the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars, with the consoles personified as {{Moe Anthropomorphism}}s, and one of the villains representing DigitalPiracyIsEvil. [[spoiler: A non-canon bad ending of ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaMk2'' is a metaphor of the effects of a monopoly effects on the videogame industry and how it would eventually lead it to crumble, and the back-story of one of the characters in ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaVictory'' is an allegory for UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.]] Most of the time it can be taken as a comedy with loads of references and in jokes related to gaming.

* ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' - Animals oust the human farmer and take over the running of the farm, as an allegory for the rise and corruption of Communism in the USSR. [[SchoolStudyMedia The book is often used by high schools to teach students how allegory works]].

* ''Film/TheAscent'', about two Russian soldiers during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII who get captured by the Germans, turns into an allegory about Christ and Judas. One of the soldiers dies nobly, sacrificing himself on the gallows as a beatific light shines down on him. The other elects to join ThoseWackyNazis and ends the film a hollow wreck of a man. This is made overt when the collaborator is even called "Judas" by the villagers after he helped lead his old friend to execution.

Perhaps the most famous example is ''Literature/PilgrimsProgress'', a Christian allegory in which the protagonist (named [[MeaningfulName Christian]]) leaves his old life to go on a journey to the [[{{Heaven}} Celestial City]], overcoming many obstacles along the way. Not all allegories are this [[AnvilOfTheStory heavy-handed]], however. Some are very subtle, to the point where you don't even ''realize'' the story is an allegory until someone points it out to you. This is why so many readers get to thinking that EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory.

* ''Animation/{{Ostrov}}'', an animated short film by Fyodor Khitruk, features a man stranded on a FarSideIsland who is at first ignored, and later exploited, by everyone who passes by, none of whom bother to help him out. When there's nothing left of the island but the cap of a tapped-out oil well, another castaway floating by on a branch offers to help the man out. It represents how the underpriveleged and alienated often have no one to rely on but each other.

* [[WordOfGod According to]] Creator/TakashiYanase, his children's book ''Chirin no Suzu'' ([[Anime/RingingBell Chirin's Bell]]) is an allegory [[WarIsHell for the effects of war]] (notably UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) and the negative side effects for victims. [[SavageWolf Woe/Wor the wolf]] is a personification of War, and [[SweetSheep Chirin]] representing innocent victims and civilians of war (notably orphaned children who lost parents and family members).

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* ''Animation/{{Igra}}'' uses two children drawing pictures that animate and fight each other as an allegory for an EscalatingWar that ends in nuclear holocaust. It ends with the boy drawing a missile that launches and detonates over the girl's drawing of a house, after which the boy accidentally knocks over an ink bottle. The ink spills over the drawings, symbolizing the end of the world.
''Animation/{{Ostrov}}'', an animated short film by Fyodor Khitruk, features a man stranded on a FarSideIsland who is at first ignored, and later exploited, by everyone who passes by, none of whom bother to help him out. When there's nothing left of the island but the cap of a tapped-out oil well, another castaway floating by on a branch offers to help the man out. It represents how the underpriveleged and alienated often have no one to rely on but each other.
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[[folder:Animation]]

* ''Animation/{{Igra}}'' uses two children drawing pictures that animate and fight each other as an allegory for an EscalatingWar that ends in nuclear holocaust. It ends with the boy drawing a missile that launches and detonates over the girl's drawing of a house, after which the boy accidentally knocks over an ink bottle. The ink spills over the drawings, symbolizing the end of the world.

''Animation/Ostrov'', an animated short film by Fyodor Khitruk, features a man stranded on a FarSideIsland who is at first ignored, and later exploited, by everyone who passes by, none of whom bother to help him out. When there's nothing left of the island but the cap of a tapped-out oil well, another castaway floating by on a branch offers to help the man out. It represents how the underpriveleged and alienated often have no one to rely on but each other.

* The major arcana in a Tarot deck are said to represent the development of an unenlightened seeker through enlightenment until fulfillment.

* [[WordOfGod According to]] Creator/TakashiYanase, his children's book ''Chirin no Suzu'' ([[Anime/RingingBell]] ''Chirin's Bell'') is an allegory [[WarIsHell for the effects of war]] (notably UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) and the negative side effects for victims. [[SavageWolf Woe/Wor the wolf]] is a personification of War, and [[SweetSheep Chirin]] representing innocent victims and civilians of war (notably orphaned children who lost parents and family members).

* TalesOfTheBlackFreighter, the [[ShowWithinAShow Story Within A Story]] in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': a tragic little pirate story about a man who [[spoiler: gets so paranoid about pirates attacking his home town, that he goes crazy and ends up killing everyone himself]], interesting in its own right, and then you realize that [[spoiler: It's a metaphor for the [[WellIntentionedExtremist villain]]'s plan to "save the world" by murdering thousands, and further hints that his plan is totally in vain]].

* The [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts SparkShort]] ''Float'' is about a father discovering that his son has the ability to fly and his struggle to accept it because of how different it makes his son from other children. Bobby Alcid Rubio created the short as a metaphor for his struggle to accept his son's autism diagnosis.

* The [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts SparkShort]] ''Float'' is about a father discovering that his son has the ability to fly and his struggle to accept it because of how different it makes his son from other children. Bobby Alcid Rubio created the short as an allegory on his struggle to accept his son's autism diagnosis.

* The [[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts SparkShort]] ''Float'' is about a father discovering that his son has the ability to fly and struggle to accept that he's not like the other kids because of it. Bobby Alcid Rubio wrote it as an allegory on his struggle to accept his son's autism diagnosis.

* The [[WesternAnimation/PixarShort SparkShort]] ''Float'' is about a father discovering that his son has the ability to fly and struggle to accept that he's not like the other kids because of it. Bobby Alcid Rubio wrote it as an allegory on his struggle to accept his son's autism diagnosis.