Monday, May 4, 2009
Animal Symbolism
Animal symbolism is a very interesting topic. It made me think a lot about how much animals are really used as symbols for human life. The first thing that came to my mind was the Chinese calendar. The Chinese use animals to represent certain years. These animals also represent certain characteristics that are used to predict how things are going to be as well as characteristics of people born in that year. Another example of how people use animals as symbols is in trying to judge a personality. Many people use the kind of pets people have to tell them what kind of personality a person has. According to this idea, if a person has a cat, they are said to be more calm and sophisticated. I think these kind of stereotypes can be very misleading. The species of an animal such as a dog can also be used as a symbol. Many people see certain types of dogs representing different things. For example, a beagle is a symbol of hunting, a golden retriever as a family friend, a poodle as a symbol for wealth, and a rottweiler as a symbol of viciousness and fighting. This is not just seen in dogs, but the example of the dogs is what I am most familiar with. The idea of typing types of human characteristics to animals is also used. This was seen in the Plague Dogs movie. The fox was pictured as a sly and cunning animal. Many other animals have had human characteristics tied to them as well. I think as long as animals exist we will use them as symbols for things in our lives. Even if all animals fail to exist anymore, they will still be remember in one way or another through the symbolism they were tied to.
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Personally, I don't believe using animals as symbols is a bad thing. I believe as humans, we label and symbolize everything throughout our lives. We give everything a meaning and put it into some type of category. I feel symbolizing helps to identify certain things. If everyone knows and understands the symbols it's like it almsot takes the form of its own language.
ReplyDeleteI also dont believe using animals as symbols is immoral. As candace said we humans always symbolize things in our life. It is a trait that have lead to speach and writing by use symbolizing sounds and words. There is just no possible way we will stop symbolizing animals every culture does so in some way or another. For example the chinese calender has different animals representing different years. Its just a natural thing we do, we use the things around us to symbolize certain aspects of our own lives.
ReplyDeleteIn talking about animals as symbols, I am reminded of that section in Midgley’s book on the symbolism of women and animals. My thoughts are somewhat unrelated to the current thread, but I thought I would share them anyway. I remember that day that we were talking about how animals often represent our passions and a sort of reckless emotion. We had also brought up where Midgley points out that the devil is often depicted as being part animal. The animal side is seen as the “dark” side, the evil side. It was this use of the term “dark” that caught my attention. I was reminded of the Pullman novels The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spy Glass. These books take an atheistic view of the world and human existence and Pullman calls them “His Dark Materials.” It was this use of the word dark that started me thinking. In these novels, the characters have their souls on the outside of their bodies in the form of different animals. These animals do usually represent some personality trait of their human. This connection of animals and souls reminded me of Kohak’s point that the origin of the word soul may simply be that of a spirit which got me thinking about the reverence of animals and seeing them as holy or more pure creatures, untainted by sin. I don’t know if any of these connections where intended by the author, or if there are not really connections there, and my brain is simply fried and my synapses are misfiring, but it was the path my thoughts chose. Has anyone else read these books? What do you think?
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