Mar
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Allusion and Implication & Inference
March 2, 2008 | Tagged allusion, American history, cacophony, discordance, finale, imply, infer, persuasion, protest, reference, subtext | 1 Comment
Objective (really one objective written from two different perspectives):
- Understand how authors IMPLY meaning though ALLUSION
- Know how to INFER meaning by investigating references
Warm-up
- Read the following excerpt from the Worsley OnLine school project
- An allusion is a literary device that stimulates ideas, associations, and extra information in the reader’s mind with only a word or two. Allusion means ‘reference’. It relies on the reader being able to understand the allusion and being familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words.
- “As the cave’s roof collapsed, he was swallowed up in the dust like Jonah, and only his frantic scrabbling behind a wall of rock indicated that there was anyone still alive”.
- The allusion in the sentence above is to Jonah. The reader is expected to recognize the reference to Jonah and the whale, which should evoke an image of being ’swallowed alive’ … in this case, behind a wall of dust and rock.
- Allusions in writing help the reader to visualize what’s happening by evoking a mental picture. But the reader must be aware of the allusion and must be familiar with what it alludes to.
- List as many allusions as you can think of from literature, film, music or other media in your life
Mini Lesson
- Discuss the examples the students provided from their warm-up
- Emphasize:
- packing a whole association into just a few words
- the reader’s awareness
- Prepare the class for the audio exemplar
- Explain the context of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner”
- finale of Woodstock 1969
- Woodstock as peace movement/protest against Vietnam War (esp. since Tet 1968)
- Juxtaposition of picking the national anthem as media for finale of protest
- Curious omission of vocals
- Hand-out lyrics to “Star-Spangled Banner”
- Scott wrote these lyrics while watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore in 1814
- Hendrix could assume his audience would know the lyrics
- Essential Questions:
- Where does Hendrix stray from the lyrics?
- What implication (via allusion) could Hendrix be making
- Purpose
- Audience
- Form
- Explain the context of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner”
- Discussion
- What did the kids notice?
- What might Hendrix be saying?
- Notice the cacophony accompanies the lyrics reference to
- “rockets red glare”
- “bombs bursting in air”
- Instruments
- guitar cacophony
- air strikes (re: Operation Rolling Thunder ‘65-’68)
- whistle of dropping bombs
- grinding of jet engines
- explosions/napalm
- snare drum
- irregularity
- small arms gun fire
- guitar cacophony
- Notice the cacophony accompanies the lyrics reference to
Application: (according to your classroom or curricular needs)
Does anyone reading this entry know of any other mini-exemplars that would work with this lesson? How about modifications to the lesson? Leave comments if you would like.
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Lyrics to first stanza:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?