An allegory (from Greek) is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal.
An allegory is distinguished from a metaphor by being longer sustained and more fully carried out in its details, and from an analogy by the fact that the one appeals to the imagination and the other to the reason.
For example: a fable or parable is a short allegory with one definite moral. Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the works of authors:
Jonathan Swift's "A Tale of a Tub," or William Golding's
" Lord of the Flies."