<p>I am a big fan of literature, and constantly make allusions to books in my essays for school. Do you think that style can still be appropriate for the admissions essay? For example, if you were describing a problem in your local area (very common topic for the essay), could you make an allusion to Heart of Darkness and say "I felt like Marlow - it was just as though I had been led into some conspiracy"? If you've read War of the Worlds, you know that Wells makes allusions left and right like using "cope of lead" from Dante's Inferno.</p>
<p>bump (10 char)</p>
<p>I would say use them but use them wisely. You don't want to over do it or use something that is so obscure that makes the reader go "what?"</p>
<p>Bump. Would using allusions make it seem like you're not using "your own voice"?</p>
<p>I wouldn't think so. My essay referred to both Bizet's Carmen and Hesse's Siddartha and it seemed to have worked out for the best, so def go for it. Though I would recommend keeping the quotes limited but the concepts and themes strong.</p>
<p>It might be risky! You don't know the person reading the essay and there's know guarantee that they're a literature buff or will know what you're talking about. A few are fine, but don't go into excess and quoting them left and right.</p>
<p>I've read about some copyright rules, and would people reading my essay take it the wrong way and think that I'm plagiarising if I borrow one-liners from different books, things like the line from Heart of Darkness in the original post and maybe something like "it was time to go. It was always time to go" from Slaughter House Five? Of course, I will make them fit well into my essay. (My lit teacher always loved it when I alluded to books that we had read in the past :D)</p>
<p>be careful. when you compare yourself to literary figures, don't make it sound like you're being arrogant. it's unconscious usually but it looks bad</p>
<p>but yeah just as with any allusions, be sure to make it so clear that anyone who doesnt know who Marlow is will still understand. you should be expanding on your example anyway so it shouldnt be terribly confusing ,if so ur doing it wrong</p>
<p>The best advice I was given when writing my college admissions essay was to really go outside "the box" of typical writing standards, especially those I had learned in high school (such as 3 point thesis, topic and concluding sentence, etc.). If you do choose to use such comparisons, it would be best to give a one to two sentence description of that character and their situation, instead of assuming the essay's reviewer will know what you are refering to. I work in the Admissions office at my school for work-study, and the counselors who review the applications were not neccessarily English, History, or Philosophy majors. Well, I hope this helped and best of luck to you!!</p>
<p>Thanks jimbob and southernbelle, that info helps</p>