allegory

There are Bible verses in it, there's clearly allegories and parallels between the struggles of these characters and Biblical stories.

But the contemporary allegory of patriarchal control over reproduction pulsates throughout, even as the film remains open to multiple readings.

On its most fundamental level, the water is an allegory.

Their stories often have been allegories to the racism, homophobia and other bigotry those of different marginalized identities experience in the real world.

They include the major 1890-99 ensemble “The Age of Maturity,” a large, three-figure allegory of aging that unfolds in multiple bronze sections, in which youth gives way to the inevitability of old age and death.