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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Troubled About My Soul
Explanation and Analysis—You're There:
After she meets with Hayward, Tish flashes back to when Fonny and his friend Daniel had an impromptu meeting on a street corner. The two had not seen each other since high school, and Daniel appears to be in bad shape, working a dead-end job with few friends and having recently got out of jail. Tish recalls their conversation, in which Fonny makes an allusion to a famous quotation about Mount Everest:
"Wow! What's happening?" I don't know which of them asked the question, or which of them asked it first: but I can see their faces.
"Why you asking me, man?"
"Because, like the man says about Mt. Everest, you're there."
"Where?"
"No kidding, man—how you making it?"
Daniel is confused as to why Fonny asks him how he is doing. Fonny responds to this by quoting the mountaineer George Mallory's famous quip, when asked why he attempted to climb Mount Everest three times in the 1920s: "Because it's there." Mallory's answer was first quoted in a New York Times article in 1923, just after he traveled to the U.S. for a speaking tour after his final expedition on Everest; historians dispute whether he really said the famous line or if the reporter fabricated it. The quote is used widely in reference to an ambitious person's need to take on the greatest challenge possible.
Fonny turns the quote in a more literal direction. He is surprised that Daniel is even there at the bar after his time in prison. While Mallory made his statement about the overpowering lure of the world's tallest mountain, Fonny quotes "the man" to say that Daniel is important to him because, against all odds, he is there. But Daniel does not get the reference, and asks "Where?" This shows Fonny's penchant for smarter conversation, as he makes a clever joke on the famous line.
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