Life Exposed In Linda Watson's Prairie Dog

In the article “Let Them Eat Dog”, Jonathan Safran Foer addresses the taboo subject of humans using dogs as a form of protein and sustenance. He analyzes the intelligence of our canine companions in comparison to the species most Americans would believe to be acceptable to consume, such as: pigs, cows, and chickens. While their intelligence is relatively similar, even the most devoted of carnivores still wouldn’t consider dog as a meal option. “Despite the fact that it’s legal in 44 states” (Foer para 1), poses no additional health risks than any other meat, and tastes just as good, American people still refuse to cook the family dog. Foer goes on to mention how millions of dogs, as well as cats, are euthanized every year just in the United

Throughout the history of American Literature, there have been hundreds of influential pieces which have left a mark on other writers. The book “In Honor of David Anderson Brooks, My Father” by Gwendolyn Brooks utilizes a unique writing style, theme and American values.

In order to be a leader there is a few characteristics that stand out. One is hardworking, another is determined, and the third is caring.In the book 5 Pages a Day, Peg Kehret showed leadership especially in those three categories. That person is author and animal lover, Peg Kehret. Peg showed leadership in times of sadness and times of happiness. Peg Kehret is not only an animal loving author she is also a leader with many good qualities.

In her work “What’s Wrong with Animal Rights,” Vicki Hearne challenges common beliefs of animal rights, arguing that animal rights groups do very little to actually benefit animals. She argues that

Prompt #3: “A story that takes place in a wild and natural setting might include characters struggling against nature to survive.”

Annie Dillard's “Living Like Weasels” is a personal essay reflecting the author's interpretation of her first encounter with a wild weasel. From the very beginning, Dillard explains what it is that makes a weasel wild, saying that they, “[stalk] rabbits, mice, muskrats , and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcases home” (Dillard, line 2). She uses very violent and visceral imagery and almost exaggerates to the readers how savage they live. Dillard is very clear in mentioning that the bodies are ‘warm’ as the weasel ‘drags’ it home; although written so casually, this can strike the readers as disturbing being that it implies the weasel does not even wait for death to completely consume the body of the prey. She continues to offer a distant naturalistic description of the location where she met the weasel, “under every bush [a] muskrat hole or a beer can...fields and woods, threaded everywhere with motorcycle tracks--in whose bare clay wild turtles lay eggs” (Dillard, lines 15-16). The imagery in these passages is a clear use of

In the short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” author Karen Russell develops the narrator, Claudette, through the use of five “stages” to show her progression from her wolf identity to the human culture. This short story follows a group of girls raised by wolf parents through their journey at St. Lucy’s, which is a rehabilitation center for human children raised by wolf parents. Throughout their time at St. Lucy’s, the girls are expected to experience five distinct stages as they adapt. Each of these stages is described by a fictional text entitled The Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. The nuns at St. Lucy’s use it as a guide for teaching their students. Short excerpts from this text that

In the novel of the Call of the Wild, Buck tried to adapt to his new and difficult life. He was forced to help the men find gold; he experienced a big transformation in him. At the end, he transformed into a new and different dog. Buck went through physical, mental and environmental changes. In my essay, I talked about how Buck was like at the beginning, what he changed into, and how he was forced to adapt his new environment, and underwent these changes.

Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” was a text that had a profound, illuminating, and positive impact upon me due to its use of imagery, its relevant and meaningful message, and the insightful process of preparing the poem for verbal recitation. I first read “Wild Geese” in fifth grade as part of a year-long poetry project, and although I had been exposed to poetry prior to that project, I had never before analyzed a poem in such great depth. This process of becoming intimately familiar with the poem—I can still recite most of it to this day—allowed it to have the effect it did; the more one engulfs oneself in a text, the more of an impact that text will inevitably have. “Wild Geese” was both revealing and thought-provoking: reciting it gave me

In her short story “Everyday Use”, Walker depicts the bonds among three women in rural Georgia. Walker relies on animal imagery to demonstrate important qualities of her characters. All three

Biologist, Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Springs discusses a growing issue of uneducated individuals harming and even killing various animals. Carson’s purpose is to convey the idea that individuals need to educate themselves before making rash decisions that can affect countless other species. She employs oblivious diction in order to appeal similar feelings and opinions in her environmentalist readers.

In How Smart are Animals? The author Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, is entertaining us when she puts in the anecdote to tell us that animals aren't smart they are just trained good as well as being descended from wolves, and that is how Villa helps Andrea she doesn't understand the concept of danger.

When thinking of the wilderness one might picture a scene from a camp site. Untamed dense forest, and endless jungle probably come first to mind and although this might be one meaning of wilderness, Mellor’s perception of wilderness and pastoral opens our thoughts on how we view the unpredictable and the known. In “Lure Of The Wilderness” by Leo Mellor, he shows the meaning of the unexplored wilderness and the surprises that come with the unknown, while humans try to tame what is wild and create a pastoral environment around them. Mellor’s writing helps understand hidden aspects in the short story “Wild” by Lesley Arimah, when Ada is blindsided with a plane ticket to visit her aunt in Africa. She travels to a place mostly unknown to her, besides the relatives living there. It might seem that Ada does not like to reach out and try something that could be considered out of the norm. Yet, she travels to an unknown mostly foreign to her given the past years of her childhood. It challenges Ada to change her perspective on certain aspects of her life, helping her overcome the wilderness she finds emerged in. Thus, when Mellor’s idea of wilderness in his essay are applied to “Wild”, it can be realized that Ada not only journeys into the wilderness, but starts to let it transform her into a new person, helping her develop a more pastoral environment around her and making her realize that the relationships back in the U.S. meant more to her than she had previously thought.

Mark Twain believes that dogs are superior to man because out of all animals, man is the only one that is cruel enough to inflict pain on others just for the pleasure of doing it. Twain’s short story “A Dog’s Tale”, written in 1903, displays these beliefs and is done so from a dog’s point of view. This unusual take on the story is used to help convey the theme that one shouldn’t assume the others will do the same for them. The story includes literary elements such as characterisation, structural irony and a plot and conflict. It is a story of a loyal and heroic dog which unfortunately ends in an ironic twist of fate.