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AP LITERATURE: Allusions (Literature) Flashcards

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3576661864BabbitStory: George Babbitt was the protagonist of the satirical novel Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis. Meaning: materialistic, complacent, and conformist businessman.0
3576661865BrobdingnagStory: a place of giants visited in Gullivar's Travels by swift. Meaning: something of huge proportions, immense, gigantic1
3576661866BumbleStory: Mr. Bumble is in Dickens's Oliver Twist and is a minor official in the workhouse where Oliver is brought up. Bumble is a cruel, fussy man with mighty ideas of his own importance Meaning: arrogance and conceit of the petty dignitary.2
3576661867CinderellaMeaning:(1) a person or thing that is undeservedly neglected or ignored, (2) used to describe a transformation from poverty of plainness to prosperity or glamour, (3) refer to an undervalued service that nobody will provide for, or(4) an instruction that must be followed precisely (late-night deadline).3
3576661868Don JuanStory: Spanish noble man Meaning: reputation for seducing women.4
3576661869Don QuixoteStory: a Spanish noble who was an individual who reaches for elaborate unrealistic dreams. Meaning: extremely idealistic, unrealistic and impractical.5
3576661870PanglossStory: In Voltaire's Candide (1759), Dr. Pangloss is the tutor who imbues Candide with his guiding philosophy that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. No matter what misfortunes they each suffer on their travels, Pangloss confidently and complacently assures Candide that things could not be otherwise. Meaning: describes a person who is optimistic regardless of the circumstances.6
3576661871FalstaffStory: Sir John Falstaff is the fat, witty, good-humored old knight in Shakespeare's Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Meaning: fat, jolly and debauched7
3576661872FrankensteinMeaning: anything that threatens and/or destroys the person who created it8
3576661873FridayStory: is in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and is the name given by Crusoe to the man he meets on his island, on a Friday, after spending many years there alone following a shipwreck. The two become close friends and constant companions. Meaning: loyal and willing assistant9
3576661874GalahadStory: was the noblest knight of the Round Table, the son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine. His immaculate purity and virtue predestine him to succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail Meaning: person characterized by nobility, integrity, or courtesy.10
3576661875Jekyll and HydeStory: Dr. Jekyll discovers a drug that allows him to have a separate personality, Mr. Hyde, through which he can express the evil side of his personality. Meaning: a character with two dueling personalities, which can have either personality come out rather quickly11
3576661876LilliputianStory: In book one of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Gulliver finds himself shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput. The tiny Lilliputians are only 6 inches tall and are as small-minded as they are small-bodied Meaning: trivial or very small, petty12
3576661877Little Lord FauntleroyStory: From the name of the boy hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel LLF Meaning: excessively well-mannered or elaborately dressed young boy.13
3576661878LotharioStory: a byword for libertinism Meaning: free indulgence in sensual pleasures, seducing a woman14
3576661879MalapropismStory: Mrs. Malaprop is known for her aptitude for misusing long words, the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with an amusing effect Meaning: unintentional and very humorous misuse of a word/phrase15
3576661880QuixoticTo have impractical ideas of perfection and over idealize situations16
3576661881RobotSomething that looks and acts like a human, but has no emotions17
3576661882RodomontadeTo rant with excessive pride and self satisfaction. It often has little effect18
3576661883ScroogeA character who is bitter, self-centered and greedy19
3576661884MilquetoastA weak, timid, and passive character20
3576661885Pickwickjovial, generous, and unworldly in character and short, plump and bespectacled in appearance.21
3576661886PollyanaSomeone who tends to find the food in everything, but can be foolishly or blindly optimistic22
3576661887Pooh-bahSomeone who is holding many offices in a high position, but can give the impression that they are more important than they actually are23
3576661888Simon legreeStory: is the cruel cotton plantation owner in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851-42) to whom Tom is sold and who beats Tom to death. Meaning: brutal taskmaster.24
3576661889TartuffeStory: the hypocrite in the work Tartuffe, an Imposter Meaning: describes a religious hypocrite or a hypocritical pretender to excellence of any kind.25
3576661890SvengaliStory: is a musician in George Du Maurier's novel Trilby (1894) who trains Trilby's voice and makes her a famous singer. His control over her is so great that when he dies, she loses her ability to sing Meaning: someone who establishes considerable or near-total influence over someone else—a person who exercises a controlling or mesmeric influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose.26
3576661891Uncle TomStory: is a loyal and ever-patient black slave, the main character of Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin Meaning: black man whose behavior to white people is regarded as submissively servile, and by extension can refer to anyone regarded as betraying his or her cultural or social allegiance.27
3576661892Uriah heepStory: is the shrewd, deceitful clerk of the lawyer Mr. Wickfield in Dickens's David Copperfield Meaning: obsequiousness and false humility, and his often repeated gesture of rubbing his hands together as he speaks28
3576661893YahooStory: are the imaginary race of brutish creatures, resembling humans, in Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). They embody all the baser vices and instincts of the human race. Meaning: to a course, loutish, or rowdy person, or one who engages in wanton vandalism. Also, can be a rude, noisy or violent person.29
3576661894Walter mittyStory: James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939) relates how a henpecked husband escapes his wife's nagging by retreating into his own world of daydreams in which he is the hero of many adventures Meaning: someone who lives in a fantasy world, especially someone who has lost touch with reality.30

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