• Keynote #1- Animals Perception of Humans
In this book humans are constantly being scrutinized by animals. A quote that struck me in particular signaled a reoccurring theme that I’ve noticed throughout the book. In the chapter entitled The Littlest Big Top on Earth, Ivan says “All day, I watch humans scurry from store to store. They pass their green paper, dry as old leaves and smelling of a thousand hands, back and forth and back again. They hunt frantically, stalking, pushing, grumbling. Then they leave, clutching bags filled with things—bright things, soft things, big things—but no matter how full the bags, they always come back for more. Humans are clever indeed. They spin pink clouds you can eat. They build domains with flat waterfalls. But they are lousy hunters.”(18)
I felt as if he was almost painting this picture of humans as barbarians. How humans would normally view an animal like Ivan, the tables turned and set the tone for us as the audience to assume that all animals think this way.…show more content… Do we just categorize animals based on assumptions? Are we limiting their potential because we label them as “primitive?” Being able to focus on Ivan’s thoughts and feelings made me better understand life through “the looking glass.” Ivan gives his observations from a place where he was placed captive by humans and he still gives them the benefit of the doubt in some situations of the novel. A perfect example of this is when he constantly refers to his cage, as his “domain.’ He realizes that it’s a cage and not a domain when his anger shifts his perception of humans after the claw stick incident. (113) Giving the animals a voice amplifies everything. It shows that they feel, that they are smart and that they notice things and in return this gives the reader a three dimensional experience; allowing us to see all sides of the