All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Summary: This book is an autobiography of sorts. James Harriot tells of his life as a vet in the Yorkshire countryside of England. Although the book is one large tale, starting with is internship with Siegfried Farnon and ending with his marriage to Helen, smaller stories about his dealings with his “patients” make the book seem like a collection of short stories. Mr. Harriot tells of how he delivered a calf in the middle of the night, or how he had to deal with an interestingly slow family going to a play. The variety in his stories made the book very fun to read.
Essay: All Creatures Great and Small is made up of many smaller tales of a vet helping out the animals that he loves. In the first chapter of the book, James Herriot introduces himself to the reader through one such story.
As a newly schooled veterinarian, Herriot gets a call to deliver a calf. It’s the middle of the night, and he knows very little of the Yorkshire area. He has to deal with the cow having the calf, and the curious owners of the cow, who question his ability as a veterinarian. Much of the situation is unknown to Herriot, because much of what a vet has to do is not in the textbooks. This is what makes this book so heartwarming and true.
James Harriot focuses on emotional feelings that come with doctoring animals, not the medical, technical aspect. Throughout the first chapter, he has to deal with many problems that arise with the delivery of the calf. But at the end, he forgets all about his troubles and feels joy towards the newly born calf. “I grinned. This was the bit I liked. The little miracle. I felt it was something that would never grow stale no matter how often I saw it.” All of his medical training gets basically thrown out the window when the deed is done. He tells, through this little chapter, why he became a veterinarian. Not for the medical science, but because of his love of the creatures of the Earth.
He sees how much an animal means to an individual, whether it be a cow to a farmer or a little poodle to an old lady. Each and every case is a brand new one. He feels for each and every animal, whether it is a bird or a horse.
Henry was an extremely lonely nine-year-old boy whose greatest wish was to get a dog. His parents were busy with their work most of the time and it seemed that Henry did not have any friends, perhaps because they moved so often. A dog would have provided Henry with unconditional love - something in short supply around his house - and would have been the perfect companion. The problem was, his parents did not want dog, which would have been another obligation and something else to take care of. As emotionally detached as his parents were, something else to take care of was just not desirable.
The abundant animal imagery in Timothy Findley's book The Wars is used to develop characterization and theme. The protagonist, Robert Ross, has a deep connection with animals that reflects his personality and the situations that he faces. This link between Robert and the animals shows the reader that human nature is not much different than animal nature.
American consumers think of voting as something to be done in a booth when election season comes around. In fact, voting happens with every swipe of a credit card in a supermarket, and with every drive-through window order. Every bite taken in the United States has repercussions that are socially, politically, economically, and morally based. How food is produced and where it comes from is so much more complicated than the picture of the pastured cow on the packaging seen when placing a vote. So what happens when parents are forced to make a vote for their children each and every meal? This is the dilemma that Jonathan Safran Foer is faced with, and what prompted his novel, Eating Animals. Perhaps one of the core issues explored is the American factory farm. Although it is said that factory farms are the best way to produce a large amount of food at an affordable price, I agree with Foer that government subsidized factory farms use taxpayer dollars to exploit animals to feed citizens meat produced in a way that is unsustainable, unhealthy, immoral, and wasteful. Foer also argues for vegetarianism and decreased meat consumption overall, however based on the facts it seems more logical to take baby steps such as encouraging people to buy locally grown or at least family farmed meat, rather than from the big dogs. This will encourage the government to reevaluate the way meat is produced. People eat animals, but they should do so responsibly for their own benefit.
2011 Two Different Mice and Two Different Men To the average reader, “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck may initially look very similar, but after carefully critiquing and comparing their abundance of differences, their opinion will change. Steinbeck found his inspiration for writing the novel after reading that poem. His novel is set in Salinas, CA during the 1900s and is about migrant farm workers while the poem is about the guilt felt by one man after he inadvertently ruins the “home” of a field mouse with his plow. Even though they are two different genres of literature, they share a similar intent. The poem is written in first person, while the novel is written in third person.
He believes that animals can suffer and feel pain and emotions, just as humans can, but he
"The Loss of the Creature" starts off with the definition of beautiful, which is a key point throughout his essay. Next, he moves in to his example of a family of tourists, and their experience (through his eyes) at the Grand Canyon. He describes his theory of the sightseer, and the discoverer; "Does a single sightseer, receive the value of P, or only a millionth part of value P" (pg 1) Value P, being the experience, and the beauty in which that person collected. Following the sightseers was a couple who stumbled upon an undisturbed Mexican Village. The couple thoroughly enjoyed their first experience, but could not wait to return with their friend the ethnologist. When they did return with him, they were so caught up in what his reaction would be; there was a total loss of sovereignty. Due to their differences of interest in the village, the couples return trip was a waste. The second part of the essay includes a Falkland Islander who comes across a dead dogfish lying on the beach. Furthermore, he explains how a student with a Shakespeare sonnet, has no chance of being absorbed by a student due to the surrounding's or package of the class room. The two students are receiving the wrong messages, on one hand we have the biology student with his "magic wand" of a scalpel, and on the other hand the English student with his sonnet in its "many-tissued package". Both students are unaware of the real experience they could undergo, and the teacher might as well give the dogfish to the English student and the sonnet to the biology student because they will be able to explore and learn more within the different setting, and without the surroundings and expectations (pg 6).
The creature’s personality, or actions toward society, was displayed as being very calm and compassionate in the novel. He made many attempts to converse with society, but society feared and mistreated...
"Everyone is influenced by their childhood. The things I write about and illustrate come from a vast range of inputs, from the earliest impressions of a little child, others from things I saw yesterday and still others from completely out of the blue, though no doubt they owe their arrival to some stimulus, albeit unconscious. I have a great love of wildlife, inherited from my parents, which show through in my subject matter, though always with a view to the humorous—not as a reflective device but as a reflection of my own fairly happy nature.
Throughout the book, Robert develops a bond with the animals as he lacks connections with the everyday people in his life. Robert’s natural instinct to save but failure to do so is portrayed with horses: “I’m going to break ranks and save ...
Like any other novel or short story, a lot can be learned about the actual story by understanding the historical content embedded in the piece. Louise Erdrich draws from her her imagination, life experiences, and social climate to piece together American Horse into a fictitious short story that somehow manages to give the reader a very real sense of the socioeconomic divide between the two groups portrayed in the story.
Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...
The author introduces themselves as a woman on the autistic spectrum. She describes her introduction to animals, and how she sees the world in a similar way to animals. Grandin explains the similarities between how people with autism and animals think; explaining that both are very detailed oriented. She then goes over the things that distract animals. This list allows the reader to watch the thought process of animals. She then moves on to the biological reasons that animals react to this list. All of these connections and ideas are important because it starts to make the reader think about the consciousness of animals. The comparison of animals to a certain type of human grants neuro-typical people to understand thoughts differently. She
In Steinbeck's classic tale of a young boy's coming of age and his initiation into manhood, this sense of life and rebirth played harmonious roles together. As a typical ten year old boy in a western farming village, Jody basically~y felt the need to justify his manliness, and to prove to his parents that he alone could handle immense responsibilities that others of his own age couldn't. To test this exact faith, a horse, named Gabilan, was handed to Jody by his stem father, ironically called Carl Tifflin instead of "dad." The horse, in fact, proved to be Steinbeck's reoccurring message throughout the remainder of the novel. Testing the patience between man and horse, and also the boy's great love for the beastly animal, it is learned of the need to develop discipline in order to cope with life and with death and the violence associated with it.
Utopia as a text is a clear reflection and representation of More’s passion for ideas and art. Through the character of Raphael, More projects and presents his ideas, concepts and beliefs of politics and society. More’s Utopia aims to create a statement on the operations and effectiveness of the society of England. This text is a general reflection of More’s idea of a perfectly balanced and harmonious society. His ideas and concepts of society somewhat contrast to the rest of 16th century England and indicate a mind that was far ahead of its time. A number of issues and themes are raised throughout the text to which More provides varying views and opinions. These are transmitted and projected through the perspectives of the fictional Raphael, More and Giles.
...fascination with the animal world. Children, they are permitted to love things they do not understand. But coming to these books as an adult, and loaded down with knowledge of their author’s life, with its longings and fears, one cannot avoid reading them as fables about E.B White’s own life” (Epstein 380). Reading about the tales and adventures of animals is different to a child compared to an adult. Children are fascinated with animals, but do not understand the hidden meanings, whereas the adults do. After knowing about White’s life it is easy to understand that these three books are pieces of his life that he is telling from a different point of view, the view of animals. White’s writing is an expression of himself (Sampson 530). “Hardly any literate American has not benefitted from his humor, his nonsense, his creativity, and his engaging wisdom” (Hasley 526).