An enduring tale

Lewis Carroll

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.