id author title date pages extension mime words sentences flesch summary cache txt en-wikipedia-org-3937 Allegory - Wikipedia .html text/html 3844 539 67 As a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners. In Late Antiquity Martianus Capella organized all the information a fifth-century upper-class male needed to know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury and Philologia, with the seven liberal arts the young man needed to know as guests.[13] Also the Neoplatonic philosophy developed a type of allegorical reading of Homer[14] and Plato.[15] Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, may be readily understood as a plot-driven fantasy narrative in an extended fable with talking animals and broadly sketched characters, intended to discuss the politics of the time.[21] Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that "A fairy tale is not an allegory."[22] ./cache/en-wikipedia-org-3937.html ./txt/en-wikipedia-org-3937.txt