An allegory is a great literary device to simplify an otherwise complex situation to teach a moral or get a point across. The recent example of the letter “Read between lines for our final chapter” (Oct. 21, TribLIVE) was none of these.
It was a clever attempt to depict Donald Trump as a duly elected, benign “fire chief” beleaguered unfairly by disloyal associates who seek his downfall, as his hometown of “Promiseland” suffers tragically.
The actual situation the allegory points to, i.e. the Trump presidency, is not complex. It is a regular revelation of a man who lacks the decency, gravitas and grace we rightly deserve in a leader of the free world.
Furthermore, if there were a moral to be taught, it rightly should have been how an otherwise civilized democracy can make a mistake and somehow put someone who I believe is demonstrably incompetent in office.
Lastly, the point the allegorist is trying to make, that the media are keeping the truth from the people about this benign “fire chief” and are complicit in this “sad tale,” is ludicrous beyond words and belied by facts.
The final chapter yet to be written does not require us to “read between the lines,” as the allegorist posits, but simply await the next presidential election, where I am confident the electorate will not make the same mistake again.
A more punchy literary genre for what the writer is trying to say would be a comic book where an anti-hero called something like “Captain Chaos” or “The Notorious Mister Crude” dominates the action.
Robert Jedrzejewski
Tarentum