Animal Farm as a Fable Essay - 1670 Words

Everyone has encountered Aesops fables at some point in their life. Aesop is the most renowned author of fables; a fable can be any â€Å"short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters† (â€Å"Fable†). For example, Animal Farm by George Orwell can be considered a fable. In this novel, the animals on Manor Farm rebel against their oppressive dictator, Mr. Jones, forming Animal Farm. However, after the rebellion, the animals allow the pigs to take over, who become the oppressive dictators who abuse the animals; Animal Farm has come full circle. It is rather obvious that the characters and events in Animal Farm are parallels to the rise and revolution of Communism in Russia. But why would Orwell write a fable†¦show more content†¦Most of the victims were innocent, for example, â€Å"The three hens... now came forward and stated that Snowball had appeared to them in a dream... They, too, were slaughtered† (Orwell 93 ). At the close of the novel, the farm animals are in the same position they were in with Jones, if not worse. The moral here is that, after a change of government, the poor will still be the oppressed lower-class. Similarly, in the fable, â€Å"The Ass and the Old Shepherd,† a shepherd tells the donkey to flee from enemies with him, or they will both be captured. The donkey replies that he does not care if the enemies take him from the shepherd, because he will be carrying his owners panniers, no matter who the owner is. Meaning, No matter who is oppressing him, he will always bear the burden. The moral to this fable is, â€Å"In a change of government the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master† (â€Å"The Ass†). Like the donkey in this short fable, Benjamin sees how pointless the revolution will be. He understands that whether the absolute leader of the farm is a person or a pig, â€Å"Life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, bad ly† (Orwell 65). After Squealer is caught in the act of altering the commandments, Benjamin just â€Å"nodded his muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand† (Orwell 112). Benjamin knew that it would come to this, where the animals had the same lives as before, where they had always â€Å"carried the panniers† forShow MoreRelatedWays of Viewing Animal Farm: Historical Allegory, Fable, and Suspension of Disbelief752 Words   |  4 PagesAnimal farm tells the story of a group of animals rebelling successfully against the previous owner, Mr Jones, who was considered to be a tyrant of animal/manor farm. The farm was planned to be communist place but because of most of the animals gullibility and unintelligence the pigs who where smarter took control and made a hierarchy and exploited the animals. Then eventually the pigs became more like humans doing things like walking on two legs and wearing cloths. 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Animal Farm is well known as an allegory. Most fables have two levels of meanings. On the surface, the fable is about animals. But on the second level, the animals stand for types of people or ideas. The way the animals interact