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AP LITERATURE: Allusions (Literature) Flashcards

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6523680132BabbitStory: George Babbitt was the protagonist of the satirical novel Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis. Meaning: materialistic, complacent, and conformist businessman.0
6523680133BrobdingnagStory: a place of giants visited in Gullivar's Travels by swift. Meaning: something of huge proportions, immense, gigantic1
6523680134BumbleStory: 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
6523680135CinderellaMeaning:(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
6523680136Don JuanStory: Spanish noble man Meaning: reputation for seducing women.4
6523680137Don QuixoteStory: a Spanish noble who was an individual who reaches for elaborate unrealistic dreams. Meaning: extremely idealistic, unrealistic and impractical.5
6523680139FalstaffStory: 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 debauched6
6523680140FrankensteinMeaning: anything that threatens and/or destroys the person who created it7
6523680142GalahadStory: 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.8
6523680143Jekyll 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 quickly9
6523680144LilliputianStory: 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, petty10
6523680145Little 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.11
6523680146LotharioStory: a byword for libertinism Meaning: free indulgence in sensual pleasures, seducing a woman12
6523680147MalapropismStory: 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/phrase13
6523680148QuixoticTo have impractical ideas of perfection and over idealize situations14
6523680149RobotSomething that looks and acts like a human, but has no emotions15
6523680151ScroogeA character who is bitter, self-centered and greedy16
6523680152MilquetoastA weak, timid, and passive character17
6523680153Pickwickjovial, generous, and unworldly in character and short, plump and bespectacled in appearance.18
6523680154PollyanaSomeone who tends to find the good in everything, but can be foolishly or blindly optimistic19
6523680155Pooh-bahSomeone who is holding many offices in a high position, but can give the impression that they are more important than they actually are20
6523680156Simon 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.21
6523680158SvengaliStory: 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.22
6523680159Uncle 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.23
6523680161YahooStory: 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.24
6523730726Aeolian harpA boxed-shaped musical instrument on which strings are stretched. These catch the wind, which produces various tones. named for the Greek god of the winds, Aeolus. The harp became a symbol for the relationship between the human mind or imagination and external inspiration25
6523749213BacchanalPertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; based on the Roman god Bacchus, god of wine.26

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