What is the source of the allusion in the sentence below?
Dave says that he would not be the person he is today were it not for his childhood, which he describes as Dickensian.
literature a poem
An allusion is a brief mention of something or someone well known, often from mythology, history, or literature. An allusion lets you reference ideas from an entire story in just a few words.
The protean nature of the disease makes it difficult to diagnose.
The word protean is an allusion to the sea god Proteus in Greek mythology. Because the sea is constantly changing, to describe something as protean suggests that it is variable or in flux.
The source of the allusion Dickensian is literature.
The works of British author Charles Dickens often featured characters struggling to survive in settings such as debtors' prisons and orphanages.
The allusion Dickensian means harsh or poverty-stricken.