ABSTRACT
Ordinarily it is not zoomorphism but anthropomorphism that gets discussed in essays on talking animals, as of course it would. The tradition of Aesop and La Fontaine continues unabated in modern children's literature, and the author should say right away, echoing Edward Hoagland, that E. B. White sometimes takes a calculated Orwellian delight in the humanity of his animals. To him the most wonderful of all his animal creations is also the most human: White's real-life dachshund Fred, the officious, libidinous pharisee of the One Man's Meat period. Because all three of White's children's books are indeed beast fables among other things, on some other MLA panel. One might explain how they intermingle the motives of parable and satire. In Stuart Little, for instance, we are never allowed to decide whether Stuart is a mouse or a person, but in either case he is a Lilliputian in whom we see ourselves reflected.
