Animal Symbolism in Literature: Examples of Animal Symbols

Symbolism is a literary device involving the usage of symbolic elements—which can be words, people, animals, marks, locations, or abstract ideas—to represent something more profound than their literal meaning. Fairy tales frequently utilize literary symbolism to convey a story’s central idea to young audiences. For instance, the Brothers Grimm often used the forest as a symbol of both mystery and peril.

From works of literature to famous paintings to film, artists employ symbolism to implicitly communicate ideas, foreshadow events, contribute to a mood, or grab the reader’s attention.

As interpreted by the author, different animals may carry different symbolic meanings from book to book. However, many animals have traditional symbolic meanings that align with the cultural consciousness. When you see any of these seven animals, they typically indicate certain themes or ideas:

1. 1. Bears: Bears are a common symbol of strength due to their immense size and power. Since bears hibernate all winter and reemerge in the spring, writers may use them to communicate themes of new life or resurrection.
2. 2. Doves: This elegant bird symbolizes peace, love, hope, and purity. Doves also carry religious symbolism, since they appear as divine messengers in both the Old and New Testaments of the Judeo-Christian Bible.
3. 3. Foxes: In fables and folktales, these tricksters often outwit others for their own benefit, thus symbolizing cleverness, cunning, and mischief. The fox also symbolizes slyness and keen senses in Native American culture.
4. 4. Lions: As the proverbial king of the jungle, the lion often symbolizes authority, power, strength, majesty, and courage. This big cat is also a popular biblical symbol. In C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the benevolent Aslan represents Jesus Christ.
5. 5. Owls: Owls hold several different symbolic meanings throughout different parts of the world. These shrewd observers symbolize wisdom in some cultures and stand-in for death and a sense of foreboding in others. After all, these skillful hunters appear only in the dark of night to stalk their prey.
6. 6. Ravens: Literature often frames ravens as bad omens or shape-shifters symbolizing death and destruction. On the other hand, authors might use intelligent ravens to indicate deep insight. If the author anthropomorphizes this bird, it may serve as a prophet communicating truths of the spirit world to human beings.
7. 7. Vultures: One of the best-known examples of animal symbolism involves a circling vulture searching for carcasses to feed on. For that reason, the vulture traditionally symbolizes death and foreshadows impending doom for a character in the story.

Animal symbolism is present in some of history’s most famous literary works, including:

1. 1. Animal Farm by George Orwell: In this animal-driven allegory, Orwell satirizes the events of the Russian Revolution and the Communist Party–ruled Soviet Union. Pigs symbolize the Bolshevik government leaders, with the character Snowball representing Leon Trotsky and Napoleon standing in for Joseph Stalin. Dogs in the novel represent Stalin’s secret police force, the NKVD, with them intimidating “working class” animals to ensure that the pigs stay in power. Additionally, the farm is a stand-in for organized human society. The pigs represent the governmental forces of control; the dogs represent military force; and various animals represent the working class.
2. 2. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: This poem tells the tale of a sailor who encounters an albatross at sea—a sign of good luck to the ship’s crew—and slaughters it with a crossbow. The angry crew blames him for cursing their voyage by carelessly striking down the good omen. In retaliation, they tie the dead bird around the sailor’s neck. After the voyage, the sailor resumes his life, still bound to the albatross, cursed to carry the physical and symbolic burden of guilt for his actions. Only after the sailor starts to appreciate sea creatures does the albatross fall off his neck and release him from his guilt.
3. 3. “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe: The titular, symbolic raven looms large in this Gothic poem following an unnamed narrator on a dreary December evening as he reads in his chamber. The bereaved speaker muses about the loss of his true love, Lenore. Following a rapping sound that the narrator assumes to be a knock at the door, a raven flies in and perches itself above the threshold to his chamber. The narrator finds himself distracted and taunted by the raven, who refuses to fly away, and begins to punctuate his intrusive thoughts and questions by parroting the word “nevermore.” Emblematic of the perpetual sadness that will follow him for the rest of his days without Lenore, the raven brings the narrator’s inescapable grief to life in animal form.

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