The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Benjamin
48
who has become deranged after being marooned
for many years on the island of the title. More than
anything else he has missed over the long years, as
he explains, he has dreamed of toasted cheese. He
looked like Ben Gunn, with his long straggly white beard
and tattered clothes.
Benjamin (benjbmin) <strong>The</strong> youn gest, favorite son
in a family. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the biblical Benjamin,
who is identifi ed in Genesis as the youn gest and
most loved son of Jacob and Rachel and the brother
of Joseph. When Joseph provides a feast for Jacob’s
sons, Benjamin is offered fi ve times as much as his
other brothers; hence, the largest share of something
may be called Benjamin’s mess. ‘He got up,
put the cage on the table, and paused for a moment
to count the mice in it. ‘One, two, three, four—
Ha!’ he cried, with a look of horror, ‘where, in the
name of Heaven, is the fi fth—the youn gest, the
whitest, the most amiable of all—my Benjamin
of mice!’ ” (Wilkie Collins, <strong>The</strong> Woman in White,
1860).
Bennet, Elizabeth See mr. darcy.
Beowulf (baybwblf) Archetypal warrior hero.
Beowulf is the central character in an Old En glish
epic poem of unknown authorship dating from the
early eighth century. Set in Denmark or Sweden,
the Germanic tale relates how the warrior Beowulf
volunteers to kill the dreadful monster Grendel,
who has been making nightly raids upon the court
of King Hrothgar. After a ferocious struggle Grendel
is killed, but the following night Beowulf has
to do battle with Grendel’s equally formidable
mother, who seeks revenge for her son’s death.
Beowulf triumphs and in due course becomes
king. Ultimately, many years later, he dies in combat
with a dragon. To his followers he seemed like a
warrior from a long past age, a Jason or a Beowulf
perhaps.
Berkeley, Busby See busby berkeley.
Berlin Wall A substantial wall or other barrier.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the formidable concrete wall
(initially just a barbed- wire fence) that was constructed
by the authorities in communist East
Germany in 1961 to control contact between people
living in the two parts of the divided country.
It quickly became a symbol of the divide between
the communist East and the capitalist West. <strong>The</strong>
wall was broken down following the po liti cal
upheavals of 1989. <strong>The</strong>re was no getting past the Berlin
Wall that the family had created. See also checkpoint
charlie; iron curtain.
Bermuda Triangle (bermyoodb) An area or situation
in which things go inexplicably missing. <strong>The</strong>
original Bermuda Triangle is a triangular area of
ocean between Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto
Rico that acquired a reputation as a region where
many ships and aircraft went missing in the second
half of the 20th century. <strong>The</strong> mysterious disappearance
of fi ve U.S. Navy torpedo bombers while
on a training fl ight in the area in December 1944,
described by Charles Berlitz in his best- selling
book <strong>The</strong> Bermuda Triangle (1974), is thought to
have been the inspiration for speculation about the
menacing properties of the region. <strong>The</strong> Bermuda
Triangle has entered the annals of modern folklore,
despite the fact that observers have claimed
that statistically the area is no more dangerous
than any other. This desk is a Bermuda Triangle for
pens and pencils.
berserk (bbzerk) Frenzied; uncontrollably violent
or destructive. <strong>The</strong> term was fi rst applied to