Allegorical Characters: Everyman and The Book Thief Anonymous 10th Grade

If someone was asked to name their favorite book character, his or her answer would most likely be the name of either a person or an animal. While many books and stories contain wonderful human and animal characters, some pieces of literature contain just as wonderful characters, that are imperative to the plot, but are not people or animals. These characters are abstract characters called allegorical characters. They are abstract ideas from life that are personified into characters in literature. For example, life, death, love, peace, and health are all abstract nouns and could therefore be transformed into an abstract character. Oftentimes, these characters carry great weight in the plot of a piece of literature. Three allegorical characters that have important effects on the plots of their stories are Knowledge from Everyman, Good Deeds from Everyman, and Death from The Book Thief.

The character Knowledge from Everyman plays the important role of increasing Everyman’s awareness, which ultimately resolves the conflict of the story. By sending Everyman to Confession, Knowledge brings him the ability not only to see what he has done wrong in his past but also to feel truly sorry and repent. This repenting causes Good Deeds to...