Allusions

Allusion #41: Sour Grapes

Background information of the story: Sour Grapes is a fable of Aesop. The story was that during the summer, on a hot day, a fox kept complaining about how hungry and thirsty he was so he kept looking for food. He came along to find a bunch of grapes. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up. He missed again, so he tried jumping a few more times but missed again, so he decided to just walk away, and to make himself feel better, he made sure to tell himself that those grapes were sour anyway, so there was no point of eating them.

Meaning in current context: bitterly rationalizes

Allusion #42: Bell the Cat

Background information of the story: Bell the Cat is a fable of Aesop as well. The story was that there was a grocer’s shop which was always with mice all over the place so people were grossed out and did not want to go in the store anymore. The owner did not know what to do about the situation so he decided to get a cat. The car used to eat the mice here and there, and so the mice got mad and decided to come up with a plan to get rid of the cat. They came up with the idea of putting a bell around the cat’s neck so whenever the cat would get around them

Meaning in current context: To provide warning; any task that is difficult or impossible to achieve

Allusion #43: Quixotic

Background information of the story: Don Quixote is a romance novel written in the early 1600s by Miguel De Servantes. Don Quixote is classified as a hero in the novel. In the novel, Don Quixote loses his mind and goes crazy after reading way to many romantic novels and so he sets off on his own knightly adventures, accompanied by his sidekick, Sancho Panza, thinking he is part of one of the novels that he read. It is also a big comic throughout the book/novel.

Meaning in current context: When someone classifies someone as Don Quixote, it means that they are somewhat foolish.

Allusion #44: Scapegoat

Background information of the story: Apparently in the Book of Leviticus, each year on the Day of Atonement, a priest would symbolically place the sins of the Israelites on a goat and then send it out into the wilderness, taking the sins of the people with it.

Meaning in current context: Someone who is punished of blamed for someone else’s bad sins or actions.

Allusion #45: Pavlovian

Background information of the story: Pavlovian also known as Pavlov’s Dogs, is a man named Ivan Pavlov, was a famous Russian psychologist. He was known especially for experiments in behavioral conditioning involving his dogs. Every day, before feeding his dogs, he would ring a little bell. Eventually, he got his dogs to where he could ring the bell, even if there was no food, and the dogs would still begin salivating.

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