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

the way it is,” he said, putting an end to any further
questioning.
Andy Hardy Archetype of an all- American boy
or the idealized American way of life. Wholesome
teenager Andy Hardy, played by Mickey Rooney in
a series of 15 fi lms made between 1937 and 1947,
was a member of the equally wholesome and cheery
Hardy family, who with their clean- living and
optimistic outlook on life epitomized mid- 20th
century middle- class American values. She came
from a town in the Midwest that was all very respectable
and Andy Hardy.
angel of death Personifi cation of death. <strong>The</strong>
angel of death is usually assumed to be of biblical
origin, being variously identifi ed as Apollyon (see
abaddon), Azrael, or Michael. “Some day soon
the Angel of Death will sound his trumpet for me”
(Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897).
anger of Juno See junoesque.
angry young man A disenchanted young man,
especially one who rails against conventional society
and the current establishment. <strong>The</strong> tag was
applied to a group of British playwrights and
novelists of the 1950s, whose ranks included John
Osborne, author of the play Look Back in Anger
(1956), which featured the seething Jimmy Porter
and from which the term originally came. He was
an angry young man in those days, not the comfortable
old codger we know today. See also kitchen- sink;
rebel without a cause.
Animal Farm A totalitarian regime in which the
ordinary order of things has been turned upside
down. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the satirical novel (1945)
of the same title by George Orwell. Orwell’s
anointed of the Lord
vision of a farm taken over by the livestock was
intended as a satire of Stalinist Rus sia, in which the
possibilities presented by the 1917 revolution had
been squandered. <strong>The</strong> danger is that we will see Animal
Farm relived in several tottering African states. See
also all animals are equal, but some animals
are more equal than others.
Anna Karenina (kbreninb) Archetype of a tragic,
doomed heroine. Anna Karenina is the central
character in a novel bearing her name written by
the Rus sian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910).
Married to a dull bureaucrat, the beautiful but
lonely Anna falls in love with the handsome Count
Vronsky, but is rejected by society for her indiscretion
and is eventually driven by despair to
throw herself under the wheels of a train. Like
Anna Karenina, she could see no way out of her misery
except to kill herself.
Annie Oakley (oklee) An expert female sharpshooter.
Annie Oakley (Phoebe Ann Mozee Butler;
1860–1926) became famous for her rifl e- shooting
skills as a member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Show in the late 19th century. Her trademark feat
involved shooting the pips out of playing cards (as
a consequence of this, punched railroad tickets
and passes to baseball games, and by extension
free tickets or benefi ts of any kind, are nicknamed
“Annie Oakleys”). My daughter’s been shooting since
she was fi ve—a regular Annie Oakley, she is.
anointed of the Lord <strong>The</strong> clergy, or others
deemed to have been chosen by God. <strong>The</strong> phrase
comes from 1 Samuel 24:10, in which David protests
accusations that he plotted the death of King
Saul: “I will not put forth mine hand against my
lord; for he is the LORD’s anointed.” It was his
mother’s dearest wish that he would elect to join the
19