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Pedro Castillo Munoz

Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 37
March 9th, 2015
Animals Through Anthropomorphic Lenses
Since classical literature, authors have commonly written stories that feature animals
with human characteristics as protagonists. This literary device, known as
anthropomorphism, plays a crucial role in determining how the moral of the story is
transmitted. In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, for example, the main characters
are anthropomorphized pigs that act very humanly and in the end adapt a human lifestyle.
Orwells purpose is to use anthropomorphized animals to elaborate on his political views
regarding the Soviet Union and communism. Other scholars, however, argue that
anthropomorphism is not the only method used to share a message through literary works. In
his book Grant Morrison Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics, Marc Singer
elaborates the exclusion of anthropomorphized animals on the comic We3 by Grant Morrison,
pointing out specifically that in Morrisons work animals are treated as animals rather than as
superheroes. Morrison confirms this claim during the interview with Newsarama, in which
he discusses the ideas behind We3. Thus, Morrisons purpose for using animals in We3 was to
present a new point of view on animal treatment but from the animals perspective.
Furthermore, the magazine Antennae published an archived interview in which Morrison
explains the attributes given to the animals and the feelings he hoped to stimulate on the
audience. Despite the popularity of anthropomorphized animals, top academics and writers,
such as George Orwell and Grant Morrison, agree that there are variations of this tendency of

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depicting animals as superheroes. Although Animal Farm successfully uses personified

animals to convey a message, Marc Singers work suggests that in some cases realistic
animals convey a stronger pathos and are more suitable to transmit a message.
While George Orwell makes use of animal personification in his book Animal Farm,
Marc Singer, professional writer specialized on graphic novels, argues that by using
anthropomorphized animals the piece of work is likely to fall under a genre called funny
animal. In his book Grant Morrison Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics,
Singer claims that this genre is defined not by its humor but by the presence of
anthropomorphized animals who walk, speak, and act like human beings (209). At the same
time, in his interview with Newsarama, Grant Morrison clearly differentiates We3 from its
obvious movie and cartoon predecessors. Morrison states that the events played out in We3
are very different and far more shockingly violent than the adventures of Thomas OMalley
and the Duchess in The Aristocrats (Disney with Fangs). Nevertheless, Singer notes that
the animals in We3 have been taught to speak English, a human quality; however, he also
claims that We3 still think and act like animals (Singer 209). In addition, Morrison
comments that The notion of teaching animals to talk is inspired by the results of research
from various animal communication experiments done over the last thirty years (Disney
with Fangs). Consequently, the projection of the animals speaking seems to be very realistic
in We3. Despite the success of both literary works, it is clear to see that Morrison and Orwell
had different purposes in using animals.
In the interview held by the magazine Antennae, Morrison explains that his purpose
in portraying the animals with their natural instincts is to illustrate a possible consequence of
animal experimentation; Orwell, however, has a different purpose for using
anthropomorphized animals. Morrison specifically says that a big part of the story is what
happens when a product of scientific hubris goes wrong and turns against its creators. For

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this reason, Morrison didnt want to sentimentalize the world of the animals. Rather than
sentimentalizing the environment, Morrison tried to be as subjective as possible, even with
the smallest details. For example, Morrison commented that the tech is based on current
military ordnance - the animals use, mines, poison gas, rapid fire bullets, ground to air
missiles and flechettes. On the same note, Singer agrees that the end result is a formalist
experiment that deploys its graphic and narrative details for carefully considered effect
(Singer 210). In the other hand, Orwell states that although Animal Farm was primarily a
satire on the Russian Revolution, his goal in using anthropomorphized animals was to
inform that that kind of revolution [Russian Revolution] (violent conspiratorial revolution,
led by unconsciously power-hungry people) can only lead to a change of masters (Animal
Farm: What Orwell Really Meant). Thus, Orwell used animals to respond to the rise of
revolutions and to expand on his political views. Therefore, it is clear to see that although
both authors included animals in their works, each one took a different approach that served
as a better path to transmit their corresponding messages.
In conclusion, Grant Morrison varied the tendency to anthropomorphize animals in his
comic in order to clearly get a moral across, rather than just entertain or shift the audiences
attention with the animals. Other writers such as Orwell, however, have also conveyed a point
of their own using personified animals as the protagonists, disregarding the fact that the use
of anthropomorphism could be very misleading and responsible for many misconceptions.
This controversy is also present among other types of literary works such as movies,
cartoons, and children stories. To some people, for instance, Mickey Mouse would have never
seemed like a real character who has a body and a mind, if it was not for the use of
anthropomorphism that brought him to life. Although this misconceptions are mostly
common among younger audiences, it is always important to know the appropriate way to
reach different audiences and know what medium is the most correct.

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Work Cited
Antennae. Mechanical Animals. Antennae, Issue 9. Spring 2009.
Brady, Matt. Disney With Fangs." Newsarama. September 29, 2007. Monday, January 19,
2015.
Morrison, Grant. We3. DC Comics, 2004.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954. Print.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm: What Orwell Really Meant. The New York Review of
Books, 11 July 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
Singer, Marc. Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics. University
Press of Mississippi, 2012.