Flannery O Connor's They Cage The Animals At Night
661 Words3 Pages
In the autobiography “They Cage The Animals at Night” the theme of caging the animals at night is repeatedly implied throughout the book. On pages 25 and 26 Mark is explaining to Jennings that he didn’t lose his Doggie, the nuns just came around at night and collected the stuffed animals while they were asleep, “It’s the rules!” he snapped. “They cage the animals at night! It’s the rules.” Mark has been at the orphanage for so long that he has learned to live with the fact that they take away the stuffed animals at night and don’t give them back until the next night. Another time when he refers to being caged is on page 261 when he is in the dormitory on his bed looking through the bars on his window, “I was was looking through the bars at the sky and some of the stars.” Jennings in basically locked up in a room with complete strangers looking through the “cage” and wishing he was out instead of in.…show more content… Carpenter, “The table and chair legs were like bars of a cage around me. This time they weren’t keeping me in, they were keeping her out.” Jennings is referring to how he was hiding from Mrs. Carpenter’s “wrath” and he is comparing his situation to being in the first orphanage he was sent to and how he felt caged up like a wild animal at night. And one other reference to the theme of caging is on pages 192-193, Jennings’ mother had just fallen from the roof and she was rushed to the hospital while Jennings was taken to an orphanage to wait for her recovery, “I looked around the room. The frosted-glass window was covered by rusted old wire-mesh grating. A radiator beneath the window sputtered out steam and some dirty brown water., “I know I’m going to be sorry I brought you