Analysis Of We The Animals

We The Animals by Justin Torres is a blistering yet exquisite novel. It is a story of three brothers who tear their way through childhood, smashing tomatoes onto each other, building kites from trash, dancing to their Paps’ booming voice over music, hiding out when their parents fight, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift, fighting fake battles as they get ready for the world – and so much more. The book is written in magical language with unforgettable images and addresses ideas that explore how deeply we are formed by our earliest bonds, and how we are ultimately propelled towards our futures. In the same light, this paper will analyze the book on its style, tone of writing and the various themes it encapsulates, attempting to unravel the engrossing mystery of the novel.

The novel would not have been what it is if it wasn’t for the language. It is concise, but shows a strong command of tone over the course of less than 150 pages, creating a sharp, hauntingly brief coming-of-age tale. Torres uses a passionate and energized tone with blatant crude brutality that express his deep dark stories in a whim of realism. The title of the book is a metaphor in itself, giving away a crude sense to the readers and the following content is composed as a series of brief chapters moving chronologically through a span of more than half-a-dozen years. The chapters are each self-contained short stories, described in simple language that often rises to an enjoyable lyricism: Paps teaching his wife and youngest boy to swim by abandoning them in deep water; Ma receding into catatonic despair when her husband disappears for a few days; the family making a hysterical attempt at escape when Ma shoves the boys into ...

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...avelled in a pack as their ethnicity set them apart from the white working-class children around them. This coupled with their home life pushed the boys into their protective intimacy.

Sexuality is another upfront themes of the novel. Although the writers’ life seems to be circumscribed by the isolation from the world and his complicity in the chaos of his parents’ marriage, change inevitably comes as adolescence steals up on him. His sensitivity and bookishness puts unwanted distance between him and his brothers. Suddenly the ‘we’ becomes ‘they’ and ‘I.’ The author writes: ‘They smelled my difference — my sharp, sad, pansy scent.”

We The Animals is a heart-wrenching read, that effectively uses language and incorporates a multitude of themes that gel within each other nicely, making the reader ‘reexamine what it means to love and hurt.’ (O, The Oprah Magazine)