10 Powerful Classic Novels Addressing Animal Rights Through Fiction

Fiction is a time-honored way that human beings explore social issues. Through analogy and imagination, we enjoy speculating about the possibilities of life, human behavior, and love. Similarly, ethics have been a great topic for novelists, for it helps people think about tough issues in a way that is realistic, easily understood, and not personally threatening. Many authors have thus approached the issue of the ethics of eating animals (either directly or indirectly) through the medium of the novel. In the first installment of this two-part series, we turn the spotlight on five classic novels that are great examples of Animal rights and vegetarian/vegan themes covered masterfully in fiction.

1. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906)

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist shocked the world with this exposé of the meat industry through the eyes of the character, Jurgis Rudkus. The Jungle explores the exploitation of the working class and animal cruelty in industrial Chicago. Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, sees his life fall apart in a new country, progressively losing his family, his health, and his home, forced to perform a series of degrading jobs and seeing others, including children, degraded by a system that destroys his sense of personal integrity. He becomes a labor organizer, a socialist, and a vegetarian. Sinclair’s novel led to public outcry and the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Sinclair himself credited the success of his book because people did not want to eat “tubercular beef,” and that, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” You can read The Jungle online for free at Project Gutenberg.

2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick (1968)

A science fiction novel that became the film “Blade Runner”, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is set in a futuristic world where everyone is vegetarian. Most species have become extinct as a result of nuclear radiation, and those that survive are the subject of human empathy as pets, while robotic models have come to replace the real thing for most people. The issue of what it means to be human is explored through the analogy of the ‘replicants‘ that the main character Deckard, is supposed to exterminate.

3.Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)

The famous monster of Shelly’s imagination was a gentle soul seeking love, who is rejected by all except a blind man who could not see how monstrous he appeared. Like his creator, Shelley, the monster is loath to harm animals and eats only acorns while on the run from the Scientist Dr Frankenstein, who created him. His goal is to find a human young enough to not judge him on his appearance. Due to his unmanageable emotions and physical strength, the monster sadly kills most people he comes into contact with.

4. ConSentiency by Frank Herbert (1958-1977)

A speculative fiction series by the author of Dune, the ConSentiency series depicts humans and extra-terrestrials on equal terms. The main character, Jorj, is a professional saboteur whose job is to slow down the actions of the government through the Bureau of Sabotage. The ConSentiency series depicts a world where most people no longer kill animals for flesh, and meat is produced in flesh vats.

5. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)

Like many science fiction novels, the Eloi of the utopian future in this classic novel are vegan. Despite this, they are also depicted as lacking in free will and basically factory-farmed meat for the underworld-dwelling Morlocks. The author describes the predatory nature of the Morlocks as the natural outcome of class struggle.

6. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk (2003)

From the author of Fight Club, Lullaby is a grim, disturbing, and sometimes humorous look at modern society and morality. The plot revolves around a reporter who discovers a poem that is actually a “culling song,” and can kill whoever hears it. As always, Palahniuk manages to create some very quirky main characters, including a vegan, eco-terrorist named Oyster. Although Oyster is a bit of a stereotype and not a very likable character, some of his rants about the way humans treat our planet and exploit animals are fairly thought-provoking.

7. K-pax by Gene Brewer (1995)

The main character in this science fiction series is ‘Prot’, a fruitarian alien from a planet called K-pax, who finds himself in New York and is quickly locked in a psychiatric institution. K-pax is described by Prot as a world built on anarchist principles, without corporate laws or religions, and where beings are peaceful and nonviolent vegans. The novels explore the nature of ‘truth’ and were made into a movie (in 2001), starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.

8. Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2008)

Science fiction horror that explores the subject of speciesism in a clever and disturbing manner. The book follows a mysterious woman (Isserley),  an alien whose job it is to pick up hitch-hiking ‘beefy’ men who later become fattened up for meat delicacies in her home world. It is the son of the owner of this hunting operation, Amlis Vess (a vegetarian), who affects Isserley’s views on human flesh.

9. PopCo by Scarlett Thomas (2004)

PopCo is the vegan author Scarlett Thomas’ 6th novel and covers topics ranging from capitalism, advertising, math, codes, animal welfare, veganism, and homeopathy. The novel also includes a vegan cake recipe of a cake that is eaten by the characters in the book. PopCo’s protagonist is Alice, a code breaker and crossword-puzzle compiler who works for a multinational toy company. She is sent to a Thought Camp where she and other PopCo employees must invent the ultimate product for teenage girls. Alice starts receiving mysterious, encrypted messages, which she suspects relate to her grandfather’s decoding of an old manuscript or could mean that she is at the center of an evil plot hatched by her employer.

10. The Vegan Revolution…With Zombies by David Agranoff (2010)

Yes, vegans can have a sense of humor! This novel takes a simple premise and delivers some hilarious results. Thanks to a new drug, animals no longer feel pain as they are led to slaughter. Unfortunately, once the drug enters the food supply, anyone who eats it is turned into a zombie (except the vegans, of course!). Vegans, freegans, abolitionists, hardliners, and raw foodists are holed up in Food Fight, Portland, Oregon’s famous vegan grocery, as they prepare to do battle with the undead. Fans of zombie or bizarro fiction will love this book, and so will vegans, because David (a vegan himself) does a great job of throwing in several inside jokes about Animal rights and vegan culture that will surely keep you entertained.

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