Spiegelman's Use Of Animals In Animal Farm

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Humans pride themselves on being civilized so much that we use the word humane, which steams from the root word human and is defined by Dictionary.com as being “characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering and distressed.” We pride ourselves on being able to rise above our animalistic nature yet in the darkest hours of our history you are able to see the beast that lies within humans: you are able to bare witness to the atrocious acts of violence and hatred. Spiegelman knowing this animalistic sense of ourselves through the use of animals creates a human connection that resonates with the reader. Spiegelman decided to portray the characters in his novel Maus as animals; he as a writer …show more content…

The idea was used in George Orwell's Animal Farm to convey the message that all violent revolutions which aim to and initially succeed eventually regress back to their animalistic totalitarian roots. This entire story is based on Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union to become the dictator that slaughtered millions of people. Old Major who dies in the beginning of the novel represents Karl Marx and how his communist ideas shaped the ultimate uprising of Stalin. Napoleon stands for Josef Stalin the ruthless Soviet Dictator who rose to power and seized it despite the general consensus that Trotsky would be Lennon’s successor. Snowball represents Trotsky and is forced into exile from his friends on the animal farm because of Napoleon. Yet what is comparable to Spiegelman is the choice of animals used. Spiegelman used cats and mice while Orwell used pigs. While pigs are prevalent in Maus they do not necessarily have a very strong role in the story. The pigs and choice of animals in each book demonstrate animalistic qualities in people that is often used to describe animals and in the case of the pigs greed is that trait. In SPiegelman’s case it was that cat and mouse game that characterized their back and fourth between the Jews and the

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