Clarice Lipector's Short Stories

Animals by Simon Rich is an outstanding short story which takes a unique perspective on the everyday life in a classroom. The story is written from the point of view of a hamster who spends his tortured life entrapped in a cage. From the first point in this story, it is clear that the purpose of the writing is not to understand the hamster, but rather to analyze the different actions of the people, and to discover that how they act towards the hamsters reflects on their character. It is curious to view the everyday interactions of people through a different set of eyes, that is done by humanizing the narrator’s perspective. Based on the actions of the many people and the treatment of the class pet, the author suggests that human nature is very much a product of the financial circumstances a person is subjected to.

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

The statement that can best be made about the purpose of The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain is that he believes that mankind is immoral, vulgar, wasteful, vengeful, discriminatory; cruel, greed, and obscene. This is because he has a moral sense and conscience despite this, doesn’t make our decisions right and properly. However, contrast with Mark Twain’s thesis; I think human beings are not that all bad and not the lowest animal, but perhaps not the highest animal either.

Justin Torres’ We the Animals depicts the struggles of three brothers in upstate New York, dealing with abuse, internalized oppression, and toxic masculinity. The three boys look up to their father through it all, breathing in his anger and violence and letting it fuel their own understanding of masculinity. Through the repetition of certain words, evocative imagery, and metaphors, Torres illustrates how the narrator attempts to model himself after his father -- whom he believes is the idealized man -- but ultimately fails and devolves into an animal as he struggles to process his emotions.

Human beings are considered to be the greatest creations that were given knowledge, skills and power to rule over the entire planet. However, at the same time, their relationship with other animals and its implications in human civilization cannot be denied. Historically, it is proven that for thousands of years, human beings have developed close contact with animals who were their means of living and at the same time often, great companions. Considering the great significance of animals in the lives of human beings, often their relationships were portrayed in literature by authors. It was meant to help the global community to have a clear understanding of the impact that animals have in the lives of human beings which is very much significant.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”- Flannery O’Connor. After reading a few of O’Connor’s stories, it is apparent that she creates very grotesque characters with very shocking conclusions. Without knowing of her style before hand, finishing one of her stories can be alarming and disturbing, but there is always a purpose and meaning to extend upon her themes. When talking about what people thought of this, O’Connor said, “when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.” For example, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find many people would see the misfit as the most disturbing when in actuality, O’Connor uses the Grandmother so make the biggest comment morals.

We The Animals, a novel by Justin Torres, is a series of stories follows the young narrator's life as he grows into adolescence living in an family of five. The narrator's father sporadically leaves them and the three boys are mostly left to themselves or in the care of their emotionally unstable mother. Over the course of “We The Animals” the family is able to stay hopeful by purposefully ignoring the current issues at hand. The family on multiple occasions has had moments of intimacy while in large conflict.

People experience different emotions that can drastically change within seconds and, cannot remain controlled. During the course of “The Most Dangerous Game”, “Scarlet Ibis” and “The Use of Force”, the author demonstrates how a person can change from calm and collected to an assailant. Sickness comes in many forms, both physical and mental. Together both can affect emotions, actions which those two then lead into flaws and faults being revealed. All humans have flaws and the authors are attempting to aid the reader in understanding flaws and that can be embraced or overpower a person. The narrators and characters of these stories have many flaws these faults which are both extremely subtle and obvious.

The novel, Fifteen Dogs, written by André Alexis tells the story of fifteen dogs with their newfound human intelligence. Each dog respectively follows their own paths and holds their own thoughts. The journey each pup encounters is easily said to be defined by the cultural beliefs of the canadians present. The importance of the reader’s cultural beliefs play a large role in the appreciation of the novel as it influences their overall apprehension. This being said, as this particular society rules that dogs are “man’s best friend”, they get treated fairly friendly by most, apart for a few exceptions. In order to gain a more global perception of this topic, comparisons between various cultures and situations in the book will be made.

The human is the most complex living being on the face of this earth, yet human roots are sometimes forgotten. Through Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, it is clear that animals are the brothers and sisters of the human race. In turn, human habits resemble those of all the living beings which creates unity between all walks of life, determining the same fate for all. A similar concept relates the three works: Living Like Weasels, Shooting an Elephant, and The Death of a Moth by Annie Dillard, George Orwell, and Virginia Woolf respectively. The authors explore the nature of such creatures in order to achieve a better understanding of their motives, all the while gaining insight on the cycle of life.

When focusing on the Mother in, We the Animals, you can see the abusive relationship she has with her husband, her damaged bond with her Sons, and what her demeanor is like throughout the novel. Justin Torres utilizes many animal metaphors when physically describing the Mother and also uses them to show her mental state at times. The act of comparing different animals and their behaviors to the Mother and her behavior, reveals her vulnerability and frail features she possesses as a young mother.

Both in and out of philosophical circle, animals have traditionally been seen as significantly different from, and inferior to, humans because they lacked a certain intangible quality – reason, moral agency, or consciousness – that made them moral agents. Recently however, society has patently begun to move beyond this strong anthropocentric notion and has begun to reach for a more adequate set of moral categories for guiding, assessing and constraining our treatment of other animals. As a growing proportion of the populations in western countries adopts the general position of animal liberation, more and more philosophers are beginning to agree that sentient creatures are of a direct moral concern to humans, though the degree of this

I have never considered that a book about a dog could be so appealing and full of deep thoughts. But I changed my viewpoint after reading the autobiographical novel “Marley & Me” written by John Grogan which depicts an astonishing story about the neurotic and loyal, clumsy and loving dog named Marley. In fact, as the author mentioned in some interviews, he intended to write the “dog story”, but soon after he realized that it was impossible to do so without including the family life [2]. That is why the title “Marley & Me” encapsulates the main topic of the book such as the relationship between a human and a pet. To start with let me introduce main characters: John, Jenny, and Marley.

In her essay, “Am I Blue,” Alice Walker argues how humans disregard the emotional similarities they share with animals. Walker incorporates in her argument the similarities between her emotions as a human, and the emotions of animals. Additionally, she presents her argument through the structure of the essay, and through her use of language. Furthermore, the overall argument of this essay is not only eye-opening, but also persuasive considering that it leaves the reader with a life question; what standards am I living by?

Due to the fact that humans have developed a considerable dominion over the earth and its other inhabitants, we are often inclined to be anthropocentric. Backed up by cultural and religious tradition, we tend to subscribe to the theory that we are distinct among earth's creatures and that this affords us a certain right in how we interact with and use the others. Even champions of animal rights, such as J.M. Coetzee's fictional novelist Elizabeth Costello, tend to subscribe to this mentality of speciesism, albeit to a different end. Costello depicts human development as a war with the other animals that was, “won […] definitively only a few hundred years ago, when we invented guns. It is only since victory became absolute that we have been