The use of Animals in Storytelling

 

My independent summer read was  Animal Farm by George Orwell, a story used as an allegory for the Russian revolution as told through animal characters against humans. I read it because my English class last year didn't get to read it, while everyone else did and its interesting concepts grasped me. Its use of animals reminds of stories such as in Aesop's fables, similar in that they both used animals to tell a deeper story. If you didn't know Aesop's fables are stories such as the tortoise and the hare. The human view and use of animals in storytelling to me is interesting because it is due to our human perception. It is a long-standing ancient tradition that still shows viability even in the modern world, as seen with Animal Farm. As animals to us are simple creatures that we can apply traits to based on their appearances or other generalizations. This makes them easy to fit into certain roles because we already have as a culture predetermined characteristics attached to them. Animal farm has these such common ones such as dogs being loyal but the potential to be violent if directed to signify the police, and sheep for a stupid and obedient population. This simplicity of the characters allows the book to be accessible to everyone as they have a predetermined understanding of what these characters are going to be like. This easy gateway allows a wide audience to engage in a world they otherwise wouldn't be interested in the complexity of the Russian Revolution. I think that it is obvious that Orwell did this intentionally as almost anyone can understand the characters, but that doesn't undermine its dark themes and tones. Do you know of any characters that have their personality traits based on their animal? Do you know of contrasting traits between cultures over one animal? Do you know of any other stories that have animal main characters?