"It was, of course, a koan-meant to be inexplicable" (Quinn 34). Daniel Quinn unknowingly describes his own book Ishmael in the above statement. Ishmael is a novel with heavy meanings and complex thoughts. Such a book needs clear explanations in order to successfully communicate with the reader. A literary tool that many authors use to support their arguments and explain their thoughts are allusions. To allude is to indirectly refer, and thus, creates an allusion. When used well, allusions could easily explain a book's messages to the reader. This is important because readers must understand the book. Otherwise, the book would be useless for failure of impacting the reader. Daniel Quinn fails to clearly convey his message by using unhelpful allusions. His allusions are too vague, too archaic, and too biblical for the average reader to understand.

Vague allusions do not aid in the understanding of the messages in...