Daily Devices: Allegory.

Allegory: a symbolism device in which an abstract idea is given a form of characters, actions or events. Usually a rhetoric device, an allegory suggests a meaning via metaphoric examples. This can be used by writers as a top down approach to writing and is often chosen to shed light on darker themes with the use of personified characters.

Examples of stories that make use of allegory:

• Animal Farm by George Orwell.
• The Rabbits by John Marsden.
• The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  

Example: George Orwell’s book Animal Farm.

Using the actions of animals on a farm to represent the overthrow of the last of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the Communist Revolution of Russia before WW II. Orwell uses allegory to expose the greed and corruption of the Revolution.