Transcript Fables - Plain Local Schools

Fables and
Allegories and Satire
An Introduction to Animal Farm
What do you know?
• What do you know or remember about
fables?
• What do you know or remember about
allegories?
• What do you know or remember about
satire?
Aesop
Probably the most well
known writer of fables
is Aesop, who lived in
Ancient Greece.
He wrote “The Ant and
the Grasshopper ” and
lots of other fables still
popular today.
Quotations from Aesop
• Don’t cry over spilt milk.
• Don’t count your chickens before
they’ve hatched.
• Beware the wolf in sheep’s
clothing.
• Appearances are often deceiving.
• Birds of a feather flock together.
• Slow and steady wins the race.
The Ant and the Grasshopper:
By Aesop
• The Ant and the Grasshopper
Fable
• Fables are very short
• Fables feature nonhuman characters
who have been personified to an
extreme
– such as animals, plants, inanimate
objects, mythical creatures, or
forces of nature who think, talk, act,
fight, disobey, and obey
• Fables end with a short moral lesson
“The Ant and the
Grasshopper” is a Fable!
• It is very short
• The animal characters talk, sing,
think, plan, and feel
• It teaches a moral or lesson: it is best
to prepare for days of need.
Allegory
• An allegory is a piece of “art” work in which all
or many pieces are created to represent
something else
• Therefore, each part has at least two
meanings:
– the literal meaning
– and an abstract or symbolic meaning
• The underlying meaning of an allegory has
social, religious, or political significance
The “Ant and the Grasshopper”
could be an Allegory, too!
Literal Meaning Symbolic Meaning
The Ant
= Hardworking People
= Work / Preparation
Corn
The Grasshopper = Short-sighted People
= Opportunity Time
Summer
= Hard Times
Winter
Satire
• Ridicules people, practices, governments,
or institutions in order to reveal their
weaknesses and provoke improvement
• Uses wit, ridicule, irony, sarcasm, parody,
reversal, and hyperbole
• Reader must be careful to pay attention to
hints and clues of the reality of the situation
beyond the façade of a seemingly innocent
story
“The Ant and the
Grasshopper” could be
Satire, too!
• It ridicules those that do not plan
ahead for times of need
• It exaggerates the consequences of
both sides
Animal Farm is all 3: a fable, an allegory, and satire!
Animal Farm as a Fable:
• It is short for the genre - a novella
• Has animals: pigs, horses, dogs, sheep,
cows, chickens, ravens, donkeys, ducks
• Teaches many lessons:
– A perfect society is only as perfect as the
members that make it up.
– No society will ever have real equality as long
as some people take advantage of others.
– Don’t always believe what you hear and see.
– Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Animal Farm as an Allegory:
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Literal = Symbolic
Manor Farm = Russia
Animals Revolution = Russian Revolution
Animalism = Communism
Old Major = Karl Marx
Napoleon = Joseph Stalin
Snowball = Leo Trotsky
Squealer = Russian Propaganda and Media
Windmill = Stalin’s 5 year improvement plan
Dogs = KGB or police
Animal Farm as Satire:
• It ridicules society and those who try to make society better
through the implementation of ideas
• It parodies (with wit) Stalin and his government as evil pigs
(literally and figuratively)
• It shows reversal in that people can be animals in the way
that they treat, exploit, and manipulate each other for their
own gain
• It exaggerates how a lack of literacy, reading, and education
make people easy targets
• It ironically shows how propaganda and rhetoric are more
important to maintaining power than goodness, competence,
fairness, and other virtues