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Allegory Criticism

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Allegory Criticism
Allegory Criticism: Essay #3
Da’Andrea Bell

Allegory criticism is an extended metaphor in which a person, abstract idea or event stands for itself and for something else. Usually involves moral or spiritual concepts which are more significant than the actual narrative. In the fiction reading, “The man In the Black Suit” by Stephen King, the main character Gary a young boy at the age of nine has found himself coming face to face with someone he believes is the devil. While out for a day of fishing Gary is approached by a man mysterious looking man. In the reading the author describes this mysterious man, “His face was very long and pale. His black hair was combed tight against his skull and parted with rigorous care on the light side of his narrow head. He was very tall. He was wearing a black three-piece suit, and I knew right away that he was not a human being, because his eyes were the orangey red of flames in a woodstove. I don’t mean just the irises, because he had no irises, and no pupils, and certainly no whites. His eyes were completely orange-an orange that shifted and flickered. And it’s really too late not to say exactly what I mean, isn’t it? He was on fire inside, and his eyes were like the little isinglass portholes you sometime see in stove doors.” Something that he has never witnessed just has always heard about in church and from what his parents always taught him when growing up. His innocent is threatened. Stephen King uses everyday events and objects to represent spiritual references, including the characters. The man in the black suit represents the devil and the young boy represents purity and innocents. The setting also sets the mood, where King sets majority of the reading in the woods, a place what is usually looked at as a place that kids are not allowed to go by themselves. The woods were usually looked at as the forbidden part of the yard. As Gary goes further in the woods is when Gary comes in contact with the man in the black



Cited: "The Man in the Black Suit." Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://wp.stockton.edu/lawlerkc/analysis/>. Mulverhill, Gisele. "Short Story Reviews: The Man in the Black Suit, by Steven King."Helium. Helium, 19 Aug. 2010. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://www.helium.com/items/1926945-stephen-king-the-man-in-the-black-suit-hStephen King, Fiction, “The Man in the Black Suit,” The New Yorker, October 31, 1994, p. 92 Stephen King, Fiction, “The Man in the Black Suit,” The New Yorker, October 31, 1994, p. 92 Read more http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1994/10/31/1994_10_31_092_TNY_CARDS_000367702#ixzz2B8KNINIM

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