NOTEBOOK
• What do you know about fables?
What fables can you remember?
What is a fable? How is it different
from a fairy tale? What fairy tales
do you remember the most? Why?
What impact did they have on you
as a child?
Fables, Allegories, Satires – Oh My!
Animal Farm – Honors English 9
Fable: Definition
• Short, simple story
• Animals as
characters; speak or
act like humans
• Designed to teach a
moral or practical
lesson
• Can be amusing
Fable: Well-known Example
“The Tortoise and the Hare”
One of Aesop's Fables
Most fables have two
levels of meaning. On the
surface, the fable is about
animals. But on a second
level, the animals stand
for types of people or
ideas.
How does Animal Farm fit
the criteria of a fable?
Allegory: Definition
• Objects, events or people are presented
symbolically
– Characters are often personifications of abstract ideas
such as charity, greed, envy…
• Underlying meaning has moral, social, religious,
or political significance (deeper than the actual
incident)
• Teaches a moral or practical lesson
• The difference between an allegory and a symbol
is that an allegory is a complete narrative that
conveys abstract ideas to get a point across.
Allegory: Example
Allegory: Example
• Why did the author tell the story of the Holocaust in this
symbolic way? Who is this story directed to?
• In an allegory, people, places, and events are used as
symbols. What can the clearing in the woods stand for?
What about the different animals? The Terrible Things?
• During the Holocaust, terrible things were done by real
people, people with faces, names and life histories. Why do
you think the author shows the Terrible Things as
anonymous?
• What would you say to Big Rabbit's statement, “We are
the White Rabbits. It couldn't happen to us?”
The way the animals interact
and the way the plot unfolds
says something about the
nature of people or the value
of ideas.
Any type of fiction that has
multiple levels of meaning in
this way is called an allegory.
How does Animal Farm fit the
criteria of an allegory?
Satire: Definition
• A literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness
• Aimed at individuals, groups, institution, or humanity in general
Horatian Satire
Criticizes vice in society
(foolish rather than evil)
Gentle, mild, and lighthearted humor
Wit, exaggeration, and
self-deprecating humor
Sympathetic
Juvenalian Satire
Addresses an evil in society
(contemptuous and
abrasive)
Scorn, outrage, and savage
ridicule
Irony, sarcasm, moral
indignation and personal
invective, less humor
Pessimistic
Satire: Examples
Scary Movie
Subject of
Criticism
Satire
Horror movies Films often
exaggerate the
techniques of horror
to scare the audience
SNL’s Weekend Television
Update
Human flaws and
vices related to
politics,
entertainment and
current events
Weird Al
Weird Al
Yankovic’s
“Don’t
Download this
Song”
Subject of
Satire
Criticism
?
?
Once in a while
Maybe you will feel the urge.
To break international copyright law
By downloading mp3s
From file sharing sites
Like morpheus or grokster or limewire or kazza.
But deep in your Heart.
You know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
Cause you start out stealing songs
Then you’re robbing liquor stores
And selling Crack
And running over school kids with your car
[Chorus]
So Don’t Download This Song
The record store is where you belong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh Don’t Download This Song
Oh you don’t want to mess
With the RIAA
They’ll sue you if you burn that Cdr.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma
Or a seven year old girl
They’ll treat you like the evil Hard-bitten criminal scum you are
Nation's Fast Food Patrons
No Longer Trusted To
Dispense Own Ketchup
The Onion – November 16, 2009
WASHINGTON—In an effort to cut condiment expenses and address
the gluttony, waste, and utter lack of self-restraint exhibited by
Americans, officials from the fast food industry announced Monday a
new policy prohibiting all customers from dispensing their own ketchup.
"We thought our patrons were responsible enough to handle a selfservice ketchup pump," said McDonald's CEO James A. Skinner, who
claimed that fast food industry leaders were partially to blame for
overestimating the maturity of the American public. "However, after
watching the way you disgusting people behave when entrusted with a
little independence, it's clear that we made a terrible mistake.“
"Unlimited access to ketchup is a privilege," Skinner continued,
"not a right."
According to representatives from the nation's six largest fast food
chains, Americans use more than $18 million worth of ketchup per
year, with nearly $7 million of the tomato-based condiment ending
up smeared on the backs of chairs, on nearby tables, or in the hair
of small children, and in some cases simply spilt in large, repulsive
puddles on the floor.
In all, some 220 factors were cited by the American Fast Food
Association in their decision to remove the self-service pumps.
Among them, the spectacular failure on the part of all patrons to
recognize their own limits, and the tendency, among many men
and women, to just squirt out the free condiment as if their lives
depended on it.
A literary satire is a
composition making fun
of something, usually
political.
What aspect of politics is
Animal Farm making fun
of? Is Animal Farm a
horatian or juvenalian
satire?