In an article for Writer’s Digest, Erika Swyler discusses the importance of allegory as a tool for fiction, political commentary, and as a genre in its own right. “Allegory’s association with fable has done it a disservice, unintentionally relegating it to the realm of children’s stories and heavy-handed moralizing,” she says.
With allegory, writers begin their story with a concept – such as a societal movement or universal experience – rather than character or setting. The allegorical character and the events of the story become symbols of that concept. “As for plot, the advantage of working from a place of long-form symbolism is the clarity of intent, which becomes a scaffold for the work,” Swyler writes. “Allegory demands that a writer be more concise.”
These approach begins with a thematic statement of what you’re exploring and will say about it. Swyler begins by building an argument in favor of her theme, rather than an outline. “If one character is representing a specific form of altruism, it necessitates a scene where that concept is confronted, perhaps even broken,” she explains. “From there comes conflict or discovery, and forward movement.” Once you’ve established that framework, you have room for character and nuance.
Allegory is often used for political criticism, as with The Crucible or Animal Farm. “The fictional gives both freedom of thought and a veneer of protection,” Swyler writes. “These are just witch trials from history, these are just animals.” While allegory is often confused with theme and metaphor, Swyler says it’s much more. “Theme is fuzzier and not always tied to narrative drive, and metaphor is too focused a trope for allegory’s range,” she explains. “It’s helpful to think of allegory as metaphor and theme squeezed together and drunk on maximalism.”
English classes often focus on the allegory at the expense of other novelistic elements. “We’re taught to see it in broad strokes and to intentionally look for moralizing, not for the nuance and depth the works themselves have,” Swyler writes. “The whale is knowledge. The horses are the workers. That early teaching overlooks what’s been made beyond the symbol, the art that the symbolic allows.”
“Novels and their interpretations are a long, long game,” Swyler concludes. “A reader may walk away from a book thinking they’ve just read an odd story about pigs. Years later, that same reader might hear a politician echo one of those farm animals, and shiver. That’s allegory’s gift.”
