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 SatireCriticizes vice in society (foolish rather than evil)

Gentle, mild, and light-hearted humor

Wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humor

Sympathetic

Juvenalian SatireAddresses an evil in society

(contemptuous and abrasive)

Scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule

Irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal

invective, less humor

Pessimistic

Satire: ExamplesSubject of

SatireCriticism

Scary Movie Horror movies Films often exaggerate the techniques of horror to scare the audience

SNL’s Weekend Update

Television Human flaws and vices related to politics, entertainment and current events

Weird Al

Subject of Satire

Criticism

Weird Al Yankovic’s “Don’t Download this Song”

? ?

Once in a while Maybe you will feel the urge.

To break international copyright lawBy downloading mp3sFrom file sharing sites

Like morpheus or grokster or limewire or kazza. But deep in your Heart.

You know the guilt would drive you madAnd the shame would leave a permanent scar

Cause you start out stealing songsThen you’re robbing liquor stores

And selling CrackAnd 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 girlThey’ll treat you like the evil Hard-bitten criminal scum you are

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 self-service 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.“

Nation's Fast Food Patrons No Longer Trusted To Dispense Own Ketchup The Onion – November 16, 2009

"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?