Examples of Allegories, Ambiguity, and Allusions

Allegory:

Three Days Grace: "Life Starts Now" Lyrics
Songwriters: Gontier, Adam; Sanderson, Neil; Stock, Barry James; Walst, Brad;

You say you feel so down
Every time I turn around
And you say you should've been gone by now
And you, you think that everything's wrong
You ask me how to carry on
We'll make it through another day just hold on.

Cause life starts now.
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow
And you're so far down
But you will survive it somehow because life starts now.

I hate to see you fall down
I'll pick you up off of the ground
I've watched the weight of your world come down
And now Its your chance to move on
Change the way you've lived for so long
Three Days Grace Life Starts Now lyrics found on http://www.directlyrics.com.com/three-days-grace-life-starts-now-lyrics.html
You find the strength you've had inside all along.

Cause life starts now.
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow and you're so far down
But you will survive it somehow because life starts now.

All this pain
Take this life and make it yours.
All this hate take your heart and let it love again.
You will survive it somehow.

Life starts now.
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow and you're so far down.
Life starts now.
You've done all the things that could kill you somehow and you're so far down.
Life starts now.

--> This is an example of an allegory, because when it states thet "life starts now,"
it does not literally mean that your life is beginning all over again, from being an infant, but that you can be "reborn," in a sense. It's using a figutative manner of explaining what the person truely means, and there hidden within the wiords than what is present on the surface; the person being reffered to is being given another chance to live their life, instead of continuing with their existance as it is now.

Ambiguity:

Three Days Grace: "Break" Lyrics
Songwriters: Gontier, Adam; Sanderson, Neil; Stock, Barry James; Walst, Brad;

Tonight, my head is spinning
I need something to pick me up
I've tried but nothing is working
I won't stop
I won't say I've had enough
Tonight, I start the fire
Tonight I break away,

Break!
Away from everybody
Break!
Away from everything
If you can't stand the way this place is
Take, yourself to higher places

Oh oh

At night I feel like a vampire
It's not right
I just can't give it up
I'll try to get myself higher
Let's go
We're gonna light it up
Tonight we start the fire
Tonight we break away

Break!
Away from everybody
Break!
Away from everything
If you can't stand the way this place is
Take, yourself to higher places

Oh oh oh

If you can't stand,
The way this place is
Take, yourself, to higher places

Break!
Away from everybody
Break!
Away from everything
If you can't stand the way this place is
Take, yourself to higher places

Oh oh

Higher places,
Oh oh
To higher places,
Oh oh
Higher places,
Take yourself to higher places

--> This song successfully displays ambiguity, because it means more than just "breaking" away from the place where the speaker is located. It symbolizes the act of lieaving the living, or dying/killing ones' self, in order to escape the life and place presently occupied. The speaker shows that you have the choice, but you do not have to make the decision; "If you can't stand the way this place is
Take, yourself to higher places" is reffering to someone killing themselves to bring them closer to God, and also possibly to use drugs to leave this world, which is represented in the lines "I'll try to get myself higher; let's go, we're gonna light it up. Tonight we start the fire; tonight we break away." The forst part symbolizes not only getting "high" off of drugs, but also death; the same applies to the second and third parts, mixing the use of drugs and death within each of the seperate lines.


Allusion:

Iron Maiden: "Run to the Hills" Lyrics
Songwriters: Harris, Stephen Percy

White man came across the sea,
Brought us pain and misery.
Killed our tribes, killed our creed,
Took our game for his own need.

We fought him hard, we fought him well,
Out on the plains we gave him hell.
But many came, too much for Cree,
Oh will we ever be set free?

Riding through dustclouds and barren wastes,
Galloping hard on the plains.
Chasing the redskins back to their holes,
Fighting them at their own game.
Murder for freedom, a stab in the back.
Women and children and cowards attack.

Run to the hills, run for your lives.
Run to the hills, run for your lives.

Soldier blue in the barren wastes,
Hunting and killing for game.
Raping the women and wasting the men,
"The only good Indians are tame."
Selling them whisky and taking their gold,
Enslaving the young and destroying the old.

Run to the hills, run for your lives.
Run to the hills, run for your lives.

heeeeeeaaaaaaaEEEEEEEAAAAAAAY

uhhhhhhhaaaaaaaUHHHHHHHAAAAAAA

Run to the hills, run for your lives.
Run to the hills, run for your lives.
Run to the hills, run for your lives.
Run to the hills, run for your lives.

--> This is an example of an allusion, where it refers to a place in time, specifically when the Native Americans [most likely the Cree, one of the largest nations of Indian tribes in the Sixteenth/16th, Seventeenth/17th, and Eighteenth/18th centuries, separated into eight different nationalities, which originally inhabited the Canadian region, but started expansion westward into the Great Plains region.( Naskapi, Montagnais, Attikamekw, James Bay Cree, Moose Cree, Swamp Cree, Woods Cree, and Plains Cree; also called Nēhilawē, which was collectively chosen for its meaning "thoes who speak our language.")] . It depicts how they were attacked and driven from their homes by white settlers, and the hardships they faced from the aftermath of the destruction delivered to them. The song is taking place during their plight, while in the midst of a battle (slaughter) of their people.