Does anyone know any biblical allusions?
Where? They’re everywhere! An allusion is an indirect reference, based on the assumption that the reader or hearer will get it. For example, in Beowulf, when Beowulf goes out to face his final battle accompanied by twelve men, one of whom is responsible for his having to face this crisis, and all but one of them run away at the crucial moment, it’s hard not to see an allusion to the arrest of Jesus. And to leap over more than 1000 years, in Stephen King’s The Green Mile, there’s a similar allusion and type of character. John Coffey (“like the drink, only not spelled the same way”–and note the initials), who has mysterious healing powers, is executed for a crime someone else committed. I think King made the parallel too plain when the narrator envisions Coffey being crucified between two others, with himself as a Roman soldier standing by, but I’d still call the depiction of John Coffey a Biblical allusion. A Biblical allusion doesn’t have to be an entire story line, either. Expression
