allegory – BookBunnies

Today Marshmallow reviews The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders, published originally in 2005.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like clever, thought-provoking books akin to those of George Orwell, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Set in a truly bizarre world, this story starts in Inner Horner which is a nation literally so small that only one of its seven citizens can fit in it at a time. What do the other six unfortunate Inner Hornerites have to do in the meantime? They basically sit in this tiny area called the Short-Term Residency Zone, located in Outer Horner. The Outer Hornerites naturally feel very superior in comparison to their miniscule neighbors. Suddenly, Inner Horner shrinks to be even smaller so that only one fourth of a citizen can inhabit the nation. This turns out to cause quite the issue with the Outer Horner Militia who feel that this constitutes an “Invasion in Progress” as they say.

While the militia deliberate on what course of action to take, Phil comes in and suggests taxing the Inner Hornites for every day that they infringe on Outer Horner. Phil is described as “a slightly bitter nobody” who fell in love with Carol–an Inner Hornite who fell in love with and married another Inner Hornite, much to Phil’s despair. With the birth of her child, Phil’s despondency contorted to more closely resemble anger. Utilizing his constituents’ naïveté and gullability, Phil convinces the Militia that the Inner Hornites are inferior to the Outer Hornites, something that confirms most of the Outer Hornites’ inner thoughts.

As the book progresses, the Inner Hornites are treated increasingly worse and worse as Phil rises from a nobody to the leader of Outer Horner. While the characters are not humans (they are all amalgamations of objects, biological parts, and machinery it seems), the plot draws a line definitively parallel to some of humanity’s worst times.

Marshmallow is reading The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders. — Marshmallow is reading *The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil* by George Saunders.

Marshmallow’s Review: This book was really bizarre. The world, the nations’ names, the characters are all just weird, but all this weirdness makes the book stand out even more in my opinion. There is not very much description of the surroundings other than it seems like Earth. There are trees and rivers and dirt and apparently a cafe in Outer Horner, but, other than that, not much else is given. The citizens are all described and drawn as being some sort of strange creatures, but none of them are the same. For example, the president of Outer Horner is described as “consisting of a jumble of bellies, white mustaches, military medals, and dignified double chins, all borne magnificently aloft on three thin wobbly legs.” Suffice it to say, they all look pretty unusual.

But the differences between us and them pretty much end there. Phil’s rise to power and the suppression of the Inner Hornites honestly follows the same course human history has too many times (this disturbingly reminded me of what I learned about pre-WWII Germany). I wonder if the weird descriptions of the characters represent some deeper analogy. The plot is intriguing and the ending was definitely very interesting.

I read The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil in an hour and five minutes, so it’s definitely pretty short. There are some drawings that made me feel like this book is a little similar to The Phantom Tollbooth. Of course one also cannot help but think of Animal Farm, another short allegorical tale about the rise of tyranny.

Overall, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil was a fascinating book and I would recommend it to almost all ages. It is slightly amusing yet intriguing in a bizarre way that is hard to explain; the way to best understand what I mean is to read it!

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders 100%. — Marshmallow rates *The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil* by George Saunders 100%.

Marshmallow found a copy of George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm during her summer break and chose it for her first review of August 2019.

Marshmallow reviews Animal Farm by George Orwell. — Marshmallow reviews *Animal Farm* by George Orwell.

Marshmallow’s quick take: If you like books that are about animals that act and talk like humans, then this might be the book for you.

Marshmallow’s Summary (with spoilers): The animals on Manor Farm gather to listen to the last speech made by Major, an old boar who is about to die. Major says in his speech that man is the real enemy and that if they overthrow the farmer then they can be free. He says that man does not produce anything like milk and eggs, but humans are still the top of the food chain. Three nights later Major passes away.

Soon after, three pigs named Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer start a rebellion against humans, like Major said. They succeed and eventually overthrow the farmer Jones and his wife. The farmer runs away and leaves the farm to the animals. The animals rename the farm Animal Farm. But Jones does not want to give away the farm. He goes back to the farm to regain the farm. The humans lose and the animals remain the owners of the farm for the time being.

Before the fight, the animals establish a kind of law called The Seven Commandments.

The Seven Commandments
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

These rules will eventually change and change for the worst.

Marshmallow is pointing to the original seven commandments in George Orwell's Animal Farm. — Marshmallow is pointing to the original seven commandments in George Orwell’s *Animal Farm*.

Animal Farm is a happy place until the leaders start getting corrupted by greed for power and eventually turn against each other. Snowball proposes that they build a windmill to get electricity. Napoleon is against the idea. The two comrades turn against each other. Napoleon trains a few dogs to use as bodyguards and he frightens Snowball away with them. Then he eventually says that he had agreed with the windmill plan the whole time and that he was really just pretending to disagree. Napoleon also says that it turns out the Snowball was allies with the evil farmer Jones. They start to build the windmill. Once they finish the windmill, after a lot of tiresome work, the windmill breaks and Snowball is blamed for the destruction of the windmill.

This is only page 47; the book has 95 pages total. A lot more happens but I think this is enough to give you a taste of what is to come.

Marshmallow’s review: This book is an allegory about how people treat each other when they have too much power. It reminded me of Aesop’s fables where the main characters are animals acting like humans. But this is a much more political story than The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

“It is the history of a revolution that went wrong—and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine.”
wrote Orwell in the original blurb for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945.
from the back cover.

As in fables you learn lessons from the story. It seems that pretty much anybody can be corrupted by power. Of course, the silence and cooperation of the farm animals who are all scared of being the next victim of Napoleon’s dogs allow his corruption to grow.

This book is quite pessimistic and does not have a happy end. But maybe we can learn from it some things. All in all I appreciated reading it and will likely read it again.

Marshmallow’s rating: 95%

Marshmallow rates George Orwell's Animal Farm 95%. — Marshmallow rates George Orwell’s *Animal Farm* 95%.

Tag: allegory

Marshmallow reviews The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders

Marshmallow reviews Animal Farm by George Orwell