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

the sale was about to commence” (Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852).
Stepford wives (stepfbrd) Women who submerge
their own personality in order to be perfect
wives for their husbands. <strong>The</strong> 1974 movie Stepford
Wives, based on a 1972 Ira Levin novel, depicted a
suburban community in which all the carefully
groomed wives (actually robotic copies of the original
women) are dedicated solely to domestic chores
and serving the needs of their husbands. All is
exposed when a newlywed couple move into the
community and the bride refuses to accept such
unthinking chauvinist servility. A second movie version
of the novel was released in 2004. We were really
surprised to fi nd that virtually overnight her sister had
abandoned her old radicalism and become a Stepford wife.
Stephen See saint stephen’s loaves.
stigmata (stigmahtb) <strong>The</strong> brands or other prominent
marks or scars on a person’s body, especially
those associated with suffering or disgrace of some
kind. <strong>The</strong> reference is ultimately to the Greek and
Roman practice of branding slaves and criminals
with a mark known as the stigma, but the word has
par tic u lar relevance for Christians, who associate
it with the wounds Christ sustained to his hands,
feet, and side at the Crucifi xion ( John 19:16–36).
Many saints and other holy people over the centuries
have reportedly (and apparently miraculously)
displayed similar bleeding wounds resembling
those infl icted on Christ. “We know too well the
child of syphilitic parents; the type is classical; the
doctors can pick it out anywhere. Those little old
creatures who have the appearance of having
already lived, and who have kept the stigmata of all
out infi rmities, of all our decay” (Upton Sinclair,
Damaged Goods, 1913).
still small voice An inner sense of right and
wrong; the voice of one’s conscience. In 1 Kings
19:11–13, God speaks to Elijah on Mount Horeb:
“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount
before the LORD. And behold, the LORD passed
by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains,
and brake in pieces the rocks before the
LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and
after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was
not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a
fi re; but the LORD was not in the fi re; and after
the fi re a still small voice . . . and said, What doest
thou here, Elijah?” “. . . no louder, no softer; not
thrusting itself on people’s notice a bit the more
for having been outdone by louder sounds—tink,
tink, tink, tink. tink. It was a perfect embodiment
of the still small voice, free from all cold, hoarseness,
huskiness, or unhealthiness of any kind”
(Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, 1841).
Stockholm syndrome (stokhom) <strong>The</strong> tendency
for kidnap victims or hostages to sympathize or
form a bond with their captors. <strong>The</strong> reference is to
a hostage situation that developed in Stockholm,
Sweden, on August 23, 1973, when four bank
employees were confi ned in a bank vault with two
bank robbers. Over the following days the kidnapped
staff came to identify more closely with
their kidnappers than they did with the authorities
outside the bank. It was like a mass outbreak of Stockholm
syndrome when the crowd started cheering on the
other team.
stoic (stoik) Accepting one’s fate without showing
emotion. <strong>The</strong> word alludes to the Stoics, members
of a philosophical school founded in ancient
Greece in the fourth century b.c. infl uenced by the
teachings of Zeno of Citium, they recommended the
repression of emotion and advocated the supremacy
stoic
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