Allegory
Etymology
From Greek "allegoria," from allos, "other," and agoreuein, "to speak in the assembly," from agora, the public square — literally "to say other than one speaks in public." The word names writing that says one thing on the surface while pointing steadily at another. It passed through Latin into English as a standard term of criticism.
noun · /AL-uh-gor-ee/
A story whose characters and events stand for a hidden moral, political, or spiritual meaning.
What it names
The tale that means something other than it says — a farm of animals standing in for a revolution — letting you name narrative built as an extended, decodable metaphor.
Example
On the surface it’s a plague novel, but the whole book reads as an allegory of living under occupation.
Related idea
An allegory sustains a hidden meaning across an entire narrative; a symbol is a single image that carries added meaning within a work.
See also