Analysis
The storyteller may use talking creatures for various reasons. It could be intended for a younger audience (such as Richard Scarry's illustrated books), or as a metaphor to show the personality of certain men or groups (Art Spiegelman's Maus depicts Jews as mice, the Germans as cats and the Poles as pigs, among others). There may also be other reasons, such as for the sake of satire in Animal Farm, or artistic purposes. The usage of talking creatures enable storytellers to combine the basic characteristics of the creature with human behavior: for example in the Three Little Pigs, the supposed creature rapacity of the wolf is shown through its repeated tricking of the three pigs. Other examples include Little Red Riding Hood and the Bremen Town Musicians. Fictional talking creatures may be roughly classified into the following categories, depending on the degree to which talk influences their behavior. Of course, many cases may be something in between; the classification below is only a frame of reference.
Read more about this topic: Talking Animals In Fiction
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