Sometimes people say that stories have meanings which the author, in fact, did not intend. For instance, many people have suggested that "The Lord of the Rings" was an allegory for the World Wars, but, in fact, it was written well before the outbreak of World War II, and J.R.R. Tolkien said that it was not an allegory. In this way people sometimes change the author’s ideas. Sometimes they do it for their own political reasons.