Just the other day, I was reading Edgar Alan Poe's The Raven. I've read this story many times in the past and have come to accept it as a favorite, largely because the raven isn't just a bird. look hard enough and you'll see that it is an animal representation of the unknown, which we as human fear the most.Being that the story itself deals with the loss of a loved on and the aftermath of such a tragedy, It's easy to see that Poe, in mid lament, come face to face with cold uncertainty. I believe that the raven wasn't really an actual bird, but his inner fears running free to torment him.
This notion brought into question how other animals in literature have pointed out parts of our own human nature.I was surprised to find that countless representations of human nature through the characterization of animals has been a part of literature for centuries. The foxes, lions, wolves and other animals of Greek fables give us the best proof of this. In one instance, mice outwitted a cat by tying a bell around a cat's neck as a warning of impending danger. Just as the raven represented Poe's fear of the unknown, the mice are a representation of our own combativeness in the event of a threat.
Having seen this in The raven and other literary favorites of mine, I started to wonder, after realizing this truth, why animals were used to point out these parts of us, rather than just identifying them outright. I've concluded three reasons for this.
1) Animals are used to represent human nature because they can be put in a position in which they must act as we would to come to a resolution or agreement. We pay more attention to this because it's presented to us from an outside point of view, as if we're looking in on ourselves in action.
2) Using animals to express human nature helps to convey the feelings of the characters, thereby adding emotion to the story and keeping the reader interested.
3) Such a method allows the reader to better connect with the characters, by relating the emotions those characters express to their own.
Poe's story, in my opinion, was a groundbreaking literary masterpiece, not only because of its use of such emotion, but because it says so much about who we really are inside.
I know I posted a comment on this post earlier, but it disappeared Using animals in literature is not a new idea! Allegories date back to Biblical times, are found in Aesop's fables, and are used in 20th century works such as Moby Dick, The Old Man and the Sea, and "To Build a Fire." Great focus for your blog! I look forward to your posts.
ReplyDeleteVery nice! Yes, animal representations of human nature & ideas is fascinating & has been a theme of literature for a very long time. The animals used in literature are symbols of deeper meaning. Many times they represent a certain aspect & come to embody that aspect wholly. In Poe's "The Raven" the raven most certainly is more than just a bird. It represents a fear of the unknown & of death, thanatophobia. The fear of death & the fear of the unknown are intertwined throughout nature. Fear of the unknown is perhaps the greatest human fear of all, being linked to several other fears including the fear of death & the fear of darkness. For another one of Poe's more comical representations of the fear of the unknown you should read his comedy "The Sphinx."
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