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

him, doomed to suffer eternal agony like some modernday
Tityus.
Tiw See tyr.
Tobacco Road Squalid and degenerate surroundings.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to a novel (1932) of the same
title written by Erskine Caldwell (1903–87), in
which he vividly described the harsh realities of
life among the impoverished sharecroppers of the
Deep South, specifi cally the rural community of
Tobacco Road in Georgia. Even as a rich man living
in a big house on Long Island, he never forgot his humble
Tobacco Road beginnings.
to be or not to be Should one do or not do something?
This most famous of all quotations from the
plays of William Shakespeare comes from his tragedy
hamlet (c. 1600), opening a soliloquy in which
the central character debates the arguments for and
against suicide. In modern usage, the phrase is commonly
applied in a much wider range of contexts,
often with a different verb in place of “be.” To vote
or not to vote, that was the question being faced by the
bulk of a po liti cally indifferent electorate.
to boldly go where no man has gone before See
star trek.
Todd, Sweeney See sweeney todd.
to everything there is a season See time and
place for everything.
to him that hath See whosoever hath, to him
shall be given.
toil in the groves of Academe See academia;
groves of academe.
toil not, neither do they spin See lilies of the
fi eld.
Tom and Jerry
Tokyo Rose (tokeeo) A woman who betrays
her country. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to Iva Ikuko Togori
D’Aquino (b. 1916), a woman of Japa nese descent
who was born in Los Angeles and later made propaganda
broadcasts for the Japa nese during World
War II. Though her broadcasts had little real effect
upon U.S. troops serving in the Pacifi c, her efforts
were enough to have her arrested and tried for
treason; she served six years in prison. <strong>The</strong> papers
dubbed her the Soviet Union’s Tokyo Rose but no one
took her seriously. See also lord haw- haw.
Tolkienesque (tolkeenesk) Reminiscent of the
style or subject matter of the writings of the British
novelist J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973). Author
of <strong>The</strong> Lord of the Rings (1954–55) and other epic
tales, Tolkien has become indelibly linked in the
pop u lar imagination to a fantasy world of wizards,
hobbits, and other folkloric creatures. Many details
of his inventive stories were prompted by his studies
as a professor of Anglo- Saxon and of En glish
Language and Literature at Oxford. He fi rst attracted
attention with a clever Tolkienesque short story published
in a magazine when he was just twelve years old.
See also gandalf; golum; hobbit; orc.
Tom and Jerry A pair of individuals who behave
in a boisterous, slapstick manner. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons made by the
animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, featuring
the comical antics of a cat called Tom and a
mouse called Jerry as they seek to outwit one
another (sometimes employing extreme violence).
<strong>The</strong>y fi rst appeared in a 1940 cartoon called Puss
Gets the Boot. It has been suggested that the characters’
names may have been prompted by the fact
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