The Mouse’s Tale 
“Fury said to a mouse
that he met in the
house, ‘let us
both go to law
I will prosecute
you – Come I’ll
take no denial:
We must have
a trial; For
really this
morning I’ve
nothing to do.’
Said the mouse
to the cur,
‘such a trial,
dear Sir, with
no jury or
judge would
be wasting
our breath.’
‘I’ll be
judge, I’ll
be jury,’
Said cunning
old Fury,
‘I’ll try
the whole
cause, and
condemn
you
to
death.’”
– Lewis Carroll
Last week we explored the way literature can employ techniques of the fantastic and enter the realm of child’s play as a way of making serious commentary and judgment on the real world. We focused William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as an illustration of how writers employ the allegorical to make criticism of the immediate society. Lord of the Flies and other such works as Animal Farm are deceptive in the use of these techniques which adopt the form of or a story about little boys or the fable to aim criticism and damning political analysis at the present society. We noted that these apply with much relevance to the immediate Guyanese society.
