Animals and Nature in the Work of Margaret Wise Brown Read almost any book by Margaret Wise Brown, and you will start to see some overlapping trends. Readers know when they are reading a work by this famous author without seeing the cover or title page because her works have so many similarities. The use of multiple animals and nature frequently appear in her books and serve as common ideas in literature by Margaret Wise Brown. Many of Margaret Wise Brown’s most famous books have animals as the main character. For example, Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, two of her most popular books, feature rabbits as the main characters. Further, in Goodnight Moon, the animal’s behavior is parallel to that of humans. For example, the motherly figure on the rocking chair is reading to the young rabbit as many parents do to their children. Additionally, Brown adds a humorous element as the young rabbit seems to have pets. Margaret Wise Brown was truly fascinated by animals, and she understood children’s attraction to animals. Tellingly, when Brown reflects on her childhood she mentions her “thirty-six rabbits, two squirrels…a collie dog, and two Peruvian hens, a Belgian hare, seven fish, and a wild robin who came back every spring” (Days Before Now). From this information about Brown, one understands where her love of animals originated--her childhood. Additionally, animals were kind to her and did not restrict or belittle Brown the way some individuals did regularly. Brown was allowed to have constant interaction with animals, which proved to be influential in her writing career. Overall, Margaret Wise Brown used numerous animals, especially rabbits because of her love for creatures and the understanding she possessed of children’s love of and interest with animals. Another area of focus when creating her books is nature. As a child, nature became Brown’s life as she notes, I grew up along the beaches and in the woods of Long Island Sound. This was the country. And from then on I was terribly busy hitching up all the dogs I could find to pull me around on my sled in the snow, and picking cherries high up in cherry trees, chasing butterflies, and burning leaves, and picking up shells on the beach, and watching the new flowers come up in the woods as the seasons passed (Days Before Now) This passage gives readers an enhanced understanding of this talented author, as they see her passion for the wilderness during childhood.
Although the chosen writer’s style structure is similar in Saint Monkey and “Trilobites,” the writer’s voice and word choice is different. The structure that an author has chosen is important for a author because of the way the story has happened. After reading the biographies of both Breece D’J Pancake and Jacinda Townsend, I realized that even growing up in different parts of the region is different. Both authors’ of Saint Monkey and “Trilobites” grew up in different states and had different lifestyles which has an effect on the writer’s writing
The fight for racial equality is one of the most prominent issues Americans have faced throughout history and even today; as the idea that enslaving individuals is unethical emerged, many great and innovative authors began writing about the issues that enslaved people had to face. Olaudah Equiano was no exception. In his work The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he attempts to persuade his readers that the American way of slavery is brutal, inhumane, and unscrupulous. Equiano manages to do this by minimizing the apparent differences between himself and his primarily white audience, mentioning the cruelties that he and many other slaves had to face, and the advantages of treating your slaves correctly.
Rossabi, Morris. "Life in China Under Mongol Rule: Religion." The Mongols in World History | Asia
Although, on the surface, Animal Dreams is a book about family conflict, the central theme is about self-discovery. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver is a story about a family who lived in the town of Grace. The history behind Grace is very vivid and descriptive. The family that becomes the reader's concern, is the Noline family. The family members are Homero Noline and his daughters Cosima and Halimeda. Cosima or Codi, as she is known in the book, comes back to Grace after fourteen years. Halimeda or Hallie, goes to Nicaragua, to help the farmers cultivate cotton in the war- torn area. Homer, the father, is the only doctor in Grace. He has Alzheimer's disease. Codi comes back to be close to her father while Hallie is kept in the dark about her father's disease. When Codi returns, she confronts all the issues that led her to leave Grace in the first place.
Robert shares a special relationship and bond with animals, in particular rabbits. The rabbits are a symbol of Rowena, not only because they were her prize possession, but also because the rabbits remind Robert of his younger sister. Both Rowena and the rabbits are characters of innocence and purity. Being considered as small, fragile and precious to those who love and look after them. Findley uses the rabbits to evoke feelings of guilt from Robert, during the constant appearances in the novel. When Rowena dies, R...
Marie de France's use of animals in her lais is molded and adjusted to fit her needs. She creates metaphors relating to love and love relationships that were not mentioned in the Christian based Book of Beasts. However, the Gawain author appears to have kept true to the type of descriptions and natures of the animals in White's translation. Both authors were able to use animals to express specific features of human emotions and relationships, furthering our understanding of the nature of temptation, love and relationships in the medieval period.
Canine tales are becoming an ever-more-popular medium for expression, says Garber: “Just as the pathos of human love and loss is most effectively retold, in modern stories, through the vehicle of the steadfastly loyal and loving dog, so the human hero has increasingly been displaced and replaced by the canine one” (44). The spotlight has been shifted from the larger-than-life human to the humble family pet and his canine brethren. Stories that feature a dog rather than a person are able to more convey a deeper sense of meaning, establishing their...
In his influential autobiography, Frederick Douglass helps pave the way for the early abolitionist movement using his own life story to bring forth the evils of slavery. He illustrates the hardships of slavery during antebellum America, focusing not only on the historical and economic issues of slavery, but mainly on the innate morality of human beings. Although many readers during this period were skeptic of the works authenticity, it brought the proper awareness to an issue in which corrupted America for many years. Frederick Douglass’s account against slavery exploits the brutal nature of slavery in way that shocked those who had looked past its harsh nature. By putting the reader in first perspective on the everyday life of a child born into slavery, he successfully uses the transitions of his life to open the people’s eyes to the crime that is slavery.
Atwood describes her father’s ambition to show her some of the finer things in life and the beauty of nature and nature’s way of life.
"Social Security Should Be Run by the Government" by Institute for America's Future.Capitalism. Noël Merino, Ed. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010. Institute for America's Future, The Perils of Privatization: Social Security Privatization Cuts Lifetime Benefits; Makes Senior Citizens Vulnerable to Poverty: The Impact in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Institute for America's Future, 2008. Reproduced by permission. .
The comparison between rabbits and other animals as being pets keep reappearing within the two different texts. Adams portrays the rabbits as more sociable animals, unlike cats and dogs that are often used as pets by humans. According to Adams, rabbits apparently intermingle with other rabbits "not for talking's sake," instead they:
Since animals, usually pets, are sometimes an essential part of one’s life, it is not surprising that we find frequent references to its role in works of social realism, such as Wislawa Szymborska’s Poems New and Collected and Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being. Animals in literature could be used to symbolize all sorts of things, but in particular, animals may represent the personality of a character. This is because as humans and animals co-exist in the same atmosphere, certain aspects of a character reveal themselves in the compassion or even hatred towards the animal. Since animals are often known to trigger the interests of humans, the attitude of the humans towards the animals contributes much to character revelation. Both Szymborska and Kundera use animals to symbolize character personality in their works. Therefore, through looking at animals, although it does seem to be a very commonplace topic, we may gain insight to what the writers are trying to convey about the character. This paper will compare the ways the writers use animals to determine a character’s personality or characteristics.
Mays, Kelly J. ""Puppy"" The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. N. pag. Print.
The author of Animal Farm, Orwell, tells a story of a farmyard tragedy and the deadly lives of a group of animals. Due to the disappearance of humans, Napoleon abuses his power and gradually transforms into a human. Orwell also used animals to clarify that humans are corrupted due to power. The author of Lord of the Flies, Golding, shows a similar story where it is about life and death situation for a group of lost boys on a island that is trying to establish a democracy while on the island. Both authors of novels, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm demonstrate the comparison between the theme of human and animal nature in settings where traditional authority absent.
In Miss Julie, by August Strindberg wrote about the naturalistic view of human behavior. He symbolizes the behavior through animal imagery. The animal image Strindberg uses helps him exemplify his naturalistic view. The first animal imagery Strindberg uses is the dog. Jean uses the dog imagery to describe to Kristen how Miss Julie made her ex-fiancé act before the break-up. “ Why, she was making him jump over her riding whip the way you teach a dog to jump.” A dog is mans best friend only because a dog is an extremely loyal animal. Having Jean compare what Miss Julies did to her ex-fiancé with what some one would do to a dog shows Miss Julies drive to be the dominant one or the master. Strindberg again uses the imagery of a dog when he has Miss Julie say, “dog who wears my collar” to Jean. Miss Julie feels that her social status is so much superior to that of Jean that their relationship could be compared to that of a master and his dog. The dog imagery in the play is also used to demonstrate the difference in social classes. In the play Miss Julie’s dog, Diana, is impregnated by the lodge-keepers pug. Kristen demonstrates Miss Julie’s disgust when she says; “She almost had poor Diana shot for running after the lodge-keepers pug.” The sexual affair between the dogs also represents the sexual affair between Jean and Miss Julie and how the two of them look down on each other. Jean looks down on Miss Julie for being surprisingly easy to obtain. While Miss Julie loo...