The Allegory Of The Farm

by Rebecca Bynum (Sept. 2008)

Cry Wolf
by Paul Lake
Benbella Books, 215 pgs.

 

One of the most moving sections is a sermon delivered to the farm animals by an old and wise ram (representing Judeo-Christian tradition, legal and moral). He also dies during the tale. Lake thus fashions a fable within the fable which is worth quoting at length.

“Men did not always stand on two legs,” the ram began, “but walked on four, like the other forest animals. His hands were but half formed, like an eagle’s claws, and incapable of grasping. His mind could not hold cunning in its net, but like a spider web too finely spun, let thought escape. He lived in the woods like a squirrel, eating nuts and berries, or foraging for roots, or eating carrion like the crow. He was wordless as stone and knew not the magic of fire.

“Then walking through the forest one day, he met a dog. The dog was hungry and the man drew him close with friendly grunts and fed him a scrap of carrion. The two became friends from that day on and learned to hunt, the dog tracking, the man following and dispatching their prey. They killed and feasted together like a pack of wolves.

“Then one day, while walking through a meadow, they encountered a horse. The man admired its grace and speed and strength. With the help of the dog, he corralled and tamed the beast. Then one day he mounted and rode the horse, sharing its pride and strength, like a lord of the earth.

“Then riding one day, he encountered a mother cow. He envied the cow’s swollen udders so ripe with milk, so he decided to tame her too and enjoy her bounty. Then he met a sheep and, being cold, he envied her rich warm coat of wool. With the help of his dog, he trapped and tamed the sheep. He protected her from prowlers that lurked near the flock and kept her safe from harm. When her coat was thick, he trimmed it to make a shield against the wind.

“But still the man was wild and rootless as a wolf, lacking even a burrow in which to rest his head. He killed and ate live flesh and drank hot blood. He growled and snarled and made sounds without meaning.

“Then one night in a dream, a man-shepherd came to him with visions of another world. With spirit-force, he tamed the man as the man had tamed the beasts. As the man slept, the man-shepherd filled his mind with words and instructed him how to gather wood and make fire. Then when the man awoke, the man-shepherd led him first from the forest to the meadow and there taught him how to fashion the first ax. With the ax, the man cut down trees and made a house. With stones he made a hearth to cook his food. Then he chopped down trees and fashioned them into rails and fenced in the meadow to keep out those beyond.

“The man said, ‘Within this fence shall live the gentle and wise animals I have tamed. Outside it shall live the beasts who feast on flesh and know not the comfort of roofs or the warmth of fire.’ Then, to separate the tame from the wild, he wrote his first words and held them up to the forest:

“NO TRESPASSING.

“From that day forth, those words became our first law and commandment.

“Thus man and his domestic companions lived in warmth and comfort, sharing their lives and labors. As the man-shepherd had taught him, the man taught the animals speech, saying, ‘Whoa, giddyup, stay, come, good boy, woo pig, easy there.’ As the days passed, the animals lived in safety and harmony, they learned gentleness and peace.

“Then one night, as he once visited the man, the spirit-shepherd visited a wise old ram in his sleep and gave him counsel. When the ram awoke, he recorded the secret knowledge with carved symbols. First he etched into the wall for all to see, NO TRESPASSING, then

“’WALK BY DAY, NOT BY NIGHT,’ the second commandment.

“’DO NOT KILL OR EAT LIVING FLESH,’ said the third.

“The fourth and final commandment was, ‘WALK IN THE WAYS OF MAN.”

Having delivered these, the old ram gathered the domestic herds around him and spoke the following words of prophecy.

“Like men who walk on two legs and work with hands, we animals have grown in the ways of wisdom. In domesticity we have learned to value concord over discord and tameness over savagery. Hearing men speak, we have learned to grasp the meanings of shaped sounds. Our spirits have grown larger and more complex and multifarious. We know joy and sorrow, loyalty and gratitude, work and service. Having names and a perception of the good, we walk each day down the path to personhood.

(…)

“All wildness will be driven from the earth, and the lion and the bear will be gentle like the lamb.”

One by one the farm’s laws are overturned by the raccoon who is made supreme judge after the death of the ram in a gesture of appeasement toward the “new citizens.” These new citizens take over the buildings on the farm one after another. The tame animals find they cannot legally exclude the “forest born” but the wild animals have no problem excluding the tame (no-go zones for the domesticated) or segregating themselves by breed and sex. Females were equal under farm law, not so in the wild, and as the wild animals take over, the status of females plunges. The following passage gives a taste of Lake’s pointed use of an up-to-date lexicon in his metaphor-making:

Using his opponents’ favorite tactic, Shep declared that it would be breedist and xenophobic to allow only forest-born animals into the old farmhouse. In fairness, the new house should be open to all.

“The term breedism,” explained the barn owl, “cannot be applied in this situation. By definition, breedism can only be practiced by the historically powerful against the weak and excluded. In this case, it is the historically excluded who will be setting themselves apart, in order to resist institutional oppression.”

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