When an author makes a reference to another book, a song, movie, a historical figure, a TV show, or something from popular culture, it is called an allusion. Often authors choose very specific allusions to help make their stories more complex and to deepen a reader's connections to the characters or the story. Sometimes authors want readers to be like detectives, so they choose allusions readers may have to look up or research to fully understand.
Click to play "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters
Click to play "Under the Boardwalk" by the Drifters
Click to play "Rambling Rose" by Nat King Cole
Click to play "Relax Max" by Dinah Washington
Read the lyrics to "Yakety Yak." Why do you think Kenny likes this song so much? what does it tell the reader about him?
Take out the papers and the trash
Or you don't get no spendin' cash
If you don't scrub that kitchen floor
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more
Yakety yak (don't talk back)
Just finish cleanin' up your room
Let's see that dust fly with that broom
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don't go out Friday night
Yakety yak (don't talk back)
You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin' that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (don't talk back)
Don't you give me no dirty looks
Your father's hip; he knows what cooks
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride
Yakety yak (don't talk back)
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Now find at least one other allusion in the book. Use the the internet to research the allusion and then make a post on your class page explaining the allusion. Copy the line from the book, explain what the allusion means, and explain how it can help you understand the story or a character. Make sure you put a link to the website or websites where you found your information.
For example:
"I knew Byron I was going to get it for not turning Byron in but before I could say anything else Momma pushed me out of the way and hit the bathroom door with her shoulder like Elliot Ness, the cop on that Untouchables TV show!" (p. 67)
The Untouchables was a TV show in the 1950s and '60s about police officers in the 1930s in Chicago who arrested gangsters like Al Capone. Their leader was named Elliot Ness.
I think the author used this allusion to give the reader a deeper description of how angry Momma was when Byron was in the bathroom and how serious she was when she came in the door -- she was acting like she was dealing with a real criminal!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untouchables_(1959_TV_series)
The Watsons' soundtrack
