Paul Lake Seminar

Dr. Paul Lake, author of Cry Wolf: A Political Fable, conducted a seminar with the scholars. He is a classically trained poet and writer. Cry Wolf, similar to Orwell’s Animal Farm, is set up with personified animals tackling the difficulties of statehood. Lake emphasized that, besides immigration, education is there biggest quagmire, a definite commonality with Animal Farm. His book, through Orwellian symbolism and metaphor, satirizes the current and possible climates of immigration policy in the US. Lake, who unabashedly admits that he is “no immigration expert,” spoke of the parallels between the Green Pastures Farm (his manifested society) and the United States.

Some scholars took issue with the drastically xenophobic moral of this story, citing the necessity of positive and fairly open immigration policy to keep our society functioning. Lake stressed the fact that this novel was a satire and thus quite purposefully overstated in its themes. In response to scholars referencing the similarities (aside from language) between Mexican immigrants and US citizens, Lake said that he is more concerned about Yemen immigrants than Mexican immigrants. In this “the longest period of sustained immigration in US history,” Lake deplored the use of ‘diversity visa quotas’ aimed at getting an annual amount of immigrants from most countries (like Yemen with a quota of 1,500).

Dr. Lake said “I don’t know the answer. My book is aimed at pointing out the problem.” He hopes that the possible dangers of immigration will be considered part-in-parcel with the benefits. This weighing of risks and rewards is a central conflict in Cry Wolf. “The animals of Green Pastures made their decision, and the time will come for us to make our own” says Lake.