Question

What best explains why Animal Farm is an example of a fable?

The characters and action represent abstract ideas and generalities.
The author uses irony to poke fun at political figures and institutions.
The animals are endowed with human characteristics and motivations.
The characters and action represent real-life historical figures and events.

Answer 1

Most fables use animals to convey their lesson. A fable is usually “a brief, succinct story that is meant to impart a moral lesson”. So the third answer.

Answer 2

The answer is: The animals are endowed with human characteristics and motivations.

A fable is a story in which animals are represented as possessing human characteristics and qualities in order to express a point of view, usually of a moral nature. In Animal Farm, Orwell depicts the events that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then to Stalinism by making use of certain animal characters. Orwell was a harsh critic of any kind of authoritarianism, which, under Stalin, he believed Russia had fallen under this category.