Chapter II The Wavering of Colonial Consciousness: Animal Encounter in Rural South Africa
2.1 The Blindness to the Animal Existence
In Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin’s discussion on ivory and elephant, they point out that “Just as ‘Africans’ and ‘cannibals’ or ‘slaves’ became not interchangeable terms but similarly metonymic in these accounts, so ‘elephants’ disappear to become their metonyms – ivory and meat.” (Huggan & Tiffin, 2010:165) They are related to racism and speciesism respectively, and the two are very similar in nature. So as to indicate animals are like slaves in Africa, which in most human societies are virtually powerless, humans can do as they please with them – exploit, enslave, murder or vivisect to improve their lot in life. Looking back to the source of the unequal relationship between human beings and animals, the western traditional philosophy boasted about the rational civilization of human beings, which made the human delusion to be above all things, and finally led to the extreme thoughts of the anthropocentrism. Descartes’s mind-body dualism and the theory of animal machines were responsible for the animals’ cruel conditions. As Huggan and Tiffin said, as people and animals became increasingly separated – by enclosure movements, by the industrial revolution, by the categorisation of animals as species – their apparent lack of capacity for either consciousness or intelligence was accepted as granting them immunity from responsibility while ironically enslaving them. (Huggan & Tiffin, 2010:211) It can be easily imagined that most white Europeans view animals with this lofty anthropocentrism.
2.2 The Affirmation of the Animal Subjects
Huggan and Tiffin believe that animals are as conscious and emotional as human beings, although there is still widespread denial that animals can lead emotionally complex lives. To support this idea, they analyze Wish, Bear and The whale Caller these three books which are in rich description of animals communication with human and their response to human. As Huggan and Tiffin conclude, “What all three novels suggest, then, is that the strongest of human emotions – love – is not and cannot be confined to our own species.” (Huggan & Tiffin, 2010:218) As we all know, humans have always regarded animals as emotionless species, and therefore, the conquest of animals and animality and even bestiality is regarded as a sign of civilization. Huggan and Tiffin expose the abuse of animal rights by human beings and castigate the anthropocentrism which deprived of animal rights. What’s more, they warned that imperialist ideology would repeat itself if human beings continued to insist on the traditional ethic of human rights and life over animal rights and life. Huggan and Tiffin’s purpose is to remove such prejudice and point out the root. In this way, the bases of racial and gender inferiority can be undermined and the inseparability of mind and body in both the material and metaphysical realms can be confirmed.
In the novel, with close contact and companionship with animals, Lurie begins to change his mind for animals. Real animals provide him with a huge visual and psych
