Chapter 33 allegory

So far though, if there's anything I can clearly remember, it's that they have two completely different currencies.Each currency is controlled by its own bank and merchant code.One of them, the one of the Music Bank, is considered the system or standard currency from which all the currency needed for financial transactions is issued uniformly.And, as far as I know, all the people who want to be seen have accounts in these banks, but the number is different.Plus, if there's anything I'm most sure of, it's that deposits in these banks have no immediate commercial value in the outside world.I'm pretty sure the managers and clerks at Music Bank are not paid in their own bank's currency.Mr. Northnipore had visited these banks in the past, or rather, the largest and most important bank in the city.But he does it occasionally, not often.He's been the backbone of several other banks, though he seems to have a somewhat lesser-known role in Music Bank.Ladies tend to go alone, as do most families, except on particularly important occasions.

I had long wanted to know more about this peculiar institution, and most of all I wanted to go to the bank with my mistress and her daughters.Since I came to her house, I found that they go out almost every morning.I also found that they always have their wallets in their hands.The purpose of their doing this is not really to show off and attract attention, but actually to tell the people they meet on the road where they are going.However, none of them has asked me to accompany them so far. Samuel Butler, Erevan (1872) Allegory is a special form of symbolic description. Its purpose is not only to imply people's words, but to interpret it in another sense.The most famous satire in the English language is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.It regards the Christian's desire to be saved as a journey.This kind of journey starts from the city of destruction, goes through hardships and obstacles, fame and fortune, such as the abyss of despair, vanity fair, etc., and finally arrives at the city of heaven.Morality and evil are anthropomorphized, characters that Christians encounter on their way.try:

Now, when he came to the top of the mountain, two people ran to meet him.One is called timidity, the other is called doubt.Christian said to them both, Sir, what is the matter?You are going wrong.Timidly said, they are going to Utopia City.They came to that place, but, he went on, the further we went, the more danger we ran into.So, we are back again. Since the premise of allegory description is that there must be a one-to-one relationship between the metaphor and the thing being allegorized, it feels in the novel, in the words of Henry James, "perceived". Life".Once allegory appears in mainstream fiction, it occurs in the form of an episodic narrative, such as a dream (the whole of The Pilgrim's Progress is a dream), or a story told by one character to another.For example, Graham Greene's novel "The Burned Box" tells a story told to children before going to bed, which is told by the protagonist Gree to the childlike Mary Rick.The story is about a successful but cynical jeweler, obviously satirizing Gree.Gree was a famous Catholic architect who later lost his faith.It also pokes fun at Green's own life and literary career:

"He was said to be a master, and his austere subjects were admired. For on each head there was a gold cross, set with precious stones, in honor of the king." As a novel writing method, allegory is mainly used in didactic and satirical fables, such as, and "Erevan" and so on.In these outstanding works, superficial realism lends a plausible tinge to the absurd.This one-to-one correspondence relationship, through wise and ingenious handling, does not allow you to see through it at a glance, thus increasing the fun. Erewhon, the English name of Erewhon, is almost nowhere (nowhere, unknown place)—the reverse spelling of the word.Butler thus continues in the tradition of Thomas Moore's novel "Utopia"What is described in the book is an imaginary village, which has both similarities and differences with the place we live in. — A young Englishman arrives somewhere in the Empire (sounds like New Zealand, where Butler spent years); he travels over mountains and stumbles upon a place unknown to the outside world.The inhabitants here are as enlightened as the Victorian English, but their values ​​and beliefs seem a little weird and abnormal.For example, they regard illness as a crime, punishable and isolated from the upper class; while crime is regarded as a disease that requires the pity and sympathy of relatives and friends, and requires a high price for treatment.The sympathetic, healing physicians are called "correctors."We quickly developed a good impression of this grotesque work and resonated with it. "Erevan" shows us the morality of the Victorian era, everything upside down.The important thing is that the author didn't say it directly.Part of the joy of reading such novels is that one has to use one's head and be encouraged by one's own successful interpretation of an allegory.

The inhabitants of "Erevan" do not have any religious beliefs.They describe the narrator's Sabbath-keeping habits as "suffering from depression and having episodes every seven days."Some of them are music banks, because "all commercial activities in the bank are carried out in music, but this music is not so pleasant to Europeans".These buildings are well decorated, with marble cladding, sculptures, right-colored glass and so on.Narrator-friendly gentlemen like Northnipore (Robinson in English—reversed spelling of the English name) have to put on a show, make small deals in these banks, and grieve the people who really make the most of them How little; in fact, everyone knows that their currency has no real value.

There is also a very obvious underlying implication that religion in the Victorian period was merely a social ritual, and that, although the English bourgeoisie ostensibly embraced the Christian creed, their principles of conduct were in fact quite different. , is utilitarian.We read and enjoy Erevan not for this obvious message, but for its absurd humor and thought-provoking wit.These witty phrases are the basis for the success of the analogy in the book.For example, banks, especially big banks, important banks, are no different from churches in architectural style and decoration.Through ingenious analogy, let us see the hypocrisy and affectation of business and religious institutions, those women who go to the music bank, hold the wallet in hand, "not really to show off, to attract attention, but to actually think Tell everyone you meet on the road where you are going."The careful hypocrisy of these people is much more interesting than the book-wielding men in realistic fiction.Therefore, allegory is another creative method of defamiliarization.