Allusion

An allusion is a reference within literature to another piece of literature or writer or historical event or person either directly or implied.

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury makes allusions to the famous writers and thinkers named below.  Match the description of the following writers and thinkers to the description.  Consider who these people are, what they wrote about, and why a society would want to censor their writings.  Then, give an overview of the texts below that Bradbury references.

• Aeschylus
• Aristophanes
• Marcus Aurelius
• Sir Francis Bacon
• Gautama Buddha
• Lord Byron
• Confucius
• Charles Darwin
• Albert Einstein
• Thomas Hardy
• Thomas Jefferson
• Samuel Johnson (Dr. Johnson)
• Abraham Lincoln  
• Niccolo Machiavelli
• Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
• John Milton
• Eugene O’Neill
• Thomas Paine
• Luigi Pirandello
• Plato
• Alexander Pope
• Bertrand Russell
• Albert Schweitzer
• William Shakespeare
• George Bernard Shaw
• Arthur Shopenhauer
• Sophocles
• Jonathan Swift
• Henry David Thoreau
• Paul Valery