Themes | The Leader And The Led

1.    Leadership:

The theme of leadership is central to the poem. Leadership is a necessary condition for any group of people or even animals as portrayed in the poem. In the poem, each animal aspires for the throne and as such makes its intention to lead, known to others. They all get disqualified because of the negative traits they possess. The lion gets disqualified because of his ferocious paws that are capable of tearing other animals. The Hyena is not spared because of his lethal appetite; the Giraffe, because of his aristocracy; the Zebra, because of the duplicity of his stripes which signifies fraud; the Elephant, because he will trample on the vulnerable; the Warthog, because of his ugliness, and the Rhino, because of riotous nature.