The use of animals as a way to represent humans is a very common theme with African storytelling. In “Lion-Child and Cow-Child”, both of the main characters are on a journey to leave their animal pasts behind. Lion-Child and Cow-Child are stuck in between, and are neither completely human nor completely animal. In order to complete their rite of passage, they must completely remove themselves from their animal pasts, in this case breaking ties with their animal mothers, in order to reach adulthood. The animal images comment on the fact that in the beginning these characters are not yet in harmony with nature. In “The Romance of the Fox”, mirroring is utilized to represent the connection between the boy and the fox. The fox is representative
Animal imagery is used to give the reader a better understanding of the message the author is trying to convey and to produce more vivid descriptions. During a round Mailer explain Griffiths attack “Griffith was like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat.” Mailer is describing an image in your mind that Griffith is intense and wants to win his fight against Paret. This also creates an imagine in readers head of Griffith looking so furious and hyped up, like his veins were popping out and he was growling like a bear. “Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked.” This is like an animal, such as a lion, which is furious and about to attack their prey. “…and then he leaped on Griffith to pull him away.” “His trainer leaped into the ring, his manager, his cut man, there were four people holding Griffith, but he was off on an orgy…” The word leaped creates an imagine of an animal prancing in joy or hunger, and this is what comes to mind as readers read this part of the
Farm animals need daily care and leaving them was never an option. Mrs. Cole learned about adoration and responsibility from her mother who loved all the animals on our farm. Mrs. Cole describes how “when she passed the barn, she always spoke to the milk cow, and the cow spoke back, a simple moo, but it was always there.” Mrs. Cole and her sister would dress in their Mama's clothes and go down the hill, past the barn, and speak to the cow. Never once did that cow speak to them the way they did to their mom. The cows realized two little girls dressed up in our mother's clothes were imposters and their relationship was based on genuine affection for
In “Beasts under the Big Top,” Sena Christian voices distaste towards animal involvement in circuses due to the behavioral repercussions it causes. The author narrows down on the story of a lion named Smith. Using the lion’s story, Christian illustrates the horrific conditions that animals tend to face when they are owned by the circus and the emotional toll it takes on the animals. For example, Christian describes Smith as having been agitated when he attacked an audience member. The lion had been previously castrated, declawed, and separated from his mate. All of these events led up to Smith’s inevitable distressed stage and the aggressive action of
Motifs are a literary device used in many novels to add a second layer of meaning to the story making the story allegorical. Zora Neale Hurston used motifs in her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to help the reader have a deeper connection with characters and the themes of the novel. The motifs also help the reader identify what the symbols are and what they represent. One of the main motifs seen in Their Eyes Were Watching God is the battle of freedom vs. imprisonment.
Humans have always had an inherent tendency to view themselves as morally superior and intelligent creatures. In thinking highly of themselves, they tend to dismiss the qualities of other species and fail to appreciate the relative harmony of the natural world. This ignorance becomes apparent in many of Clarice Lispector’s short stories, especially in that of the collection Family Ties. The motif of animals recurs multiple times in these short stories, introducing the message that animals live a more authentic way of life than humans by transcending the linguistic and emotional barriers that constrain humanity. To convey this central theme, Lispector uses animals as symbols, foils to demonstrate the flaws in society, and as a contrast between
Yann Martel offers two accounts of Pi’s survival story so that Pi is able to personify animals and also give animalistic qualities to humans. This exchange is only seen after both accounts are read. The reader is able to determine which he or she accepts as reality, but since the facts of the story go unchanged and both tales are primarily the same, the sole purpose is to highlight the traits humans and animals posses. Yann Martel exemplifies human traits in animals and animal traits in people through his claim in passage A by telling the two stories of Pi’s survival.
The obscurity is explained in the essay of Johnson, taking the image of hound, bay horse and turtle dove as example, to explain the catachrestic symbolism. In addition, this approach has been explained in another paragraph in Walden related to images to indicate the intention of the author.
Gavin portrays the theme of enslavement, firstly, through the use of similes and animalistic imagery; this is evident when the boys were ‘crouching like caged animals’. In the simile, ‘like caged animals’, the comparison between human boys and animals trapped in a zoo indicates dehumanisation, thus portraying the children as feral primitives. This implies that, like slaves, Anoup and other adults perceived the boys as savage, untamable animals who deserve to be treated accordingly. Since children are deemed to be universal symbols of innocence, the writer’s intention when describing the boys as ‘caged animals’ may have been to show how their innocence has been corrupted by child labour. In turn, this evokes intense pity from the reader, who may regard children facing such harsh conditions to be abhorrent. Therefore, the theme of enslavement is portrayed through the writer's use of animalistic imagery, showing how the boys’ suffering has reduced them to the lowest status, like animals and slaves.
Most people think of small animals, such as sheep, as meek and submissive due to their frequent portrayal as innocent characters in children’s stories and folklore; in these same stories, antagonistic characters tend to be fiercer animals such as lions or wolves. However, the children’s movie Zootopia, in which all characters are mammals, shows that this is not always the case. The characters in this film break the stereotypes against them by being different or the opposite of what the audience expects based on their species or occupation within the film. For instance, Judy Hopps solves the case on the missing mammals and why they went savage despite being a “dumb bunny”, and Nick Wilde turns from a sly con artist to the first fox cop. This
Whether is be the individualism of a zebra, the hope of an orangutan, the hatred of a hyena, or the determination of a tiger symbolism can be determined for any character. Pi’s journey obtains symbolism for each animal and a story of faith for himself through the sea and the rigors that he and the animals
For instance, in King Lear, Edgar states, “wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey” (3.4.65-66). In the quotation, he compares himself and his family members to the above animals which can potentially represent his altering emotions throughout the play. The “Sloth” is one of the seven deadly sins and signifies laziness representing Edgar’s nature in the beginning of the play when he is unable to identify his brother’s untrue loyalty, the fox illustrates his clever understanding of the situation and his brother’s true personality, the wolf is a reference to Edmund who is greedy for his father’s land and wealth, and the mad dog can depict his father Gloucester who is suffering from Edmund’s disloyalty. The “lion in prey” suggests that everything is going tragically wrong as lions attack the prey, they are not themselves the prey. All in all, this exhibits how Edmund wrongs the family and his disloyalty ends his relationship with his brother and his father. This furthermore forces Edgar to take the form of poor Tom, depicting his tragic life resulting from his brother’s disloyalty. Whereas Shakespeare uses the verbal description of animals to illustrate the breaking of a relationship, Steinbeck uses actual animals to elucidate
Throughout the story the Protagonist demonstrates a very unbalanced relationship with her family members. She feels intimidated by the world around her and turns her lack of knowledge into knowledge by controlling and influencing her younger brother Laird. She does so by telling him stories and exposing him to experiences she claims to be familiar with. In her later years her relationship with her brother becomes strong as they both realize they can benefit from each other’s experiences and differences. As a child the Protagonist viewed her father as God-like because he had control and organization over the lives and deaths of the foxes. In essence he became her hero as she admired his control over the animals. In her future relationship with her father she came to see that he was simply a business man and she made a great attempt to form a deeper relationship with her father. As she began to understand he was simply human and was no longer fearful of him. Her relationship with
Although seemingly unimportant to the storyline, the presence of the foxes and horses play a major role in the story, as they symbolize the sides of the conflict between conformity and self image. The foxes represent conformity; they all live in the same routine, are controlled by others in their environment, and are both literally and metaphorically locked in a cage. The narrator’s environment is much like the foxes, controlling. Her parent’s subtle hints, whether it be her mother’s comments or her father’s tasks, are slowly but surely enclosing on her like a cage, and will soon trap her.
(Bettelheim) discusses briefly the use of animals as characters but I would like to expand on his idea and discuss the fantasy side that uses anthropomorphism. Bettleheim discusses the ability for fantasy to connect with the child of today. In our technological focused society some children may feel a lack of of
animalistic predator as Rachel maintains the same physical alertness to the owl as she did to him. The positioning of the owl stands in directly for Harry in the form of familiar imaging as the owl is side lit and angeled just has harry was in the scene prior. As the scene prose close up shots of both an owl and bunny reveal another fairytale like moment in the storyline that is reminiscent of a fable. Cutting back to Rachel the scene ends with her in a medium shot relaying a parable like message of the world hardships for “young things”. Overall, “very little real world pretense was used as sharp lines symbolic detail through technical elements where used to create “highly” detailed and “stylized” environment in which the “expressive power” was achieved to depict the symbolic depiction of good versus evil through cinematic use of staging, lighting, and shot scale.