Paper Example: Why Look at Animals

The 19th century in Europe and North America was where capitalism began, breaking the initial bonds existing between man and nature with animals as part of life. The 20th century, on the other hand, progressed this capitalism and instances at which cultures towards respect to animals broke (Berger 2). In this era, men relied on the animal as a source of food, transport, work, and even their furs for clothing. The article states that animals first occurred to men as messengers and promises, unlike how they were treated in the 19th century for meat, leather, and even horn. Some of these promises included sacrificial and oracular benefits as in the domestication of cattle for rituals by early man. Animals have similarities and differences in man using factors such as anatomy, mortality, and habitats. In this paper, I will give a critical review of the chapter "Why look at animals" from the book "About looking" by John Berger.

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Animals have the power within them that cannot compare to the power of man, and the two can never coincide. Animals do not confirm man either positively or negatively. They retain a silence due to a lack of a common language and its approval of distance and exclusiveness from man. They offer a man a true companionship that cannot even be equaled by that of his fellow people (Berger 7). Animals belong to the planet ever since the origin making them part of nature and ecologic system. These animals have several features similar to those of humans, such as mortality. However, since the beginning, some animals have been made to be subjects. Others have received worship, while others have been used as a sacrifice. Today the vestiges of dualism remain among those who live intimately with and depend upon animals. Metaphors have arisen on the animal, as the relationship between man and animals is metaphorical.

All theories concerning the origin explain what follows, which is the exploitation of animals. For instance, in the zodiac, animals appeared in the 8 out of 12 signs. This shows that early man co-existed properly with animals. A human could only differ from animals due to human's capacity to reason symbolically, yet the first symbols were animals. In the 19th century, the use of animal metaphors known as Anthropomorphism rose in the question of constant disappearing of animals in the last two decades (Berger 12). The article states that a man put himself above nature through the acquisition of power; animals have gone below it. Animals have been tortured, enslaved, and even had their experimental art carried away.

Animals were replaced with machines in the 20th century. Industrialization displaced animals from their natural habitats. Some animals even became extinct as a result of these human activities. The post-industrialization era had animals treated like raw materials and processed in the food industry a similar way to commodities. Many families today keep animals for pets, unlike in the past, where animals were kept for other purposes such as hunting and killing mice. The pets, in this case, are either sterilized or sexually deprived and fed with manufactured food. These animals live on the ways of their "masters and mistresses." The pet owners acquire the type of respect they demand from these animals, and the animals become dependent on their keeper. In both cases, separate lives parallelism is lost.

Nature is valuable in history and class consciousness. Character is defined to be organic, and only what man has not molded. It was through animals that qualities were founded, such as courage associated with the lion yet it is these same people are marginalizing. Public zoos arose at the time animals started becoming extinct. The formation of public zoos was just an embrace of the current colonial powers - animals in the zoo experience total confinement and marginalization. The zoos were the beginning of a demonstration of how marginalized animals had become (Berger 13). There was the emergence of animal toys in the 19th century. Some of the most expensive and realistic were made using the actual animal skin. These animal-toys are aimed at creating imagery for children concerning the actual animals. The real animals are being replaced with toys while the real animals suffer in confinement and harsh habitats.

In conclusion, animals have been part of nature since their origin. Pieces of evidence about animals existing in life at the source include some of the similarities they have with humans, such as internal differentiated structures and mortality. Animals are also present in the eighth among ten zodiac signs. Animals in the early era served as promises being used for purposes such as oracles and sacrifices. However, man acquired power and took control of animals. Animals have been abused, misused, and even destroyed, and the 19th century as a result of capitalism and industrialization (Berger 14). This displaced most animals from their habitats. Animals were also hunted for food and serve as pets to their masters, leading to destruction in the separate lives parallelism of both man and animal. Animals have also become marginalized by the use of zoos and replaced with animal toys and cartoons or ancient pictures of real animals.

Works Cited

Berger, John. About looking. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.