Robert Allison And Charles Hirshberg's 'Primal Compassion'

A warm hand. A happy smile. A big hug. Compassion comes in various ways, and in Primal Compassion by Robert Allison and Charles Hirshberg, Binti, a western lowland gorilla doesn’t hesitate to show it. Her heart dwells for children, who aren’t her own. Binti is compassionate. To begin, she is protective. Binti saw a small helpless child fall into her enclosure, and immediately rushes over to help him. “To Eric, it seems likes she was asking, ‘Are you okay?’ Then Bob says, ‘She lifted the boy and put him to her chest, just exactly the way she was holding her own baby”’ (Allison and Hirshberg 140). Binti is demonstrating compassion by showing her concern for the boy’s well being. She wanted to make sure he was alive, and functioning, then proceeded to talking him into his arms like her own child, which was also very protective. But, that’s not all the compassion Binti had to share. Continuing on, Binti is protective because she took the time and effort to come up with the best possible solution to save the boy. “‘You could definitely could see her making decisions,’ Bob says. ‘You could see her look up and concentrate. Still carrying the child as if it were her own, she started off in the other direction. When Alpha, another female gorilla, much larger than Binti, approached, Binti stopped and challenged her with guttural noises”’ (Allison and Hirshberg 140). Rather than protective her own child she shielded another's child. The heartfelt gorilla displayed an immense amount of compassion, while risking her safety for someone else. She was willing to protect him at all cost. However, Binti didn’t stop there
Binti was the warm hand, the happy smile and the big hug for the unfortunate little boy. She was protective throughout the entire story, always looking out for the boys best interest. Many important lessons can be learned from Binti, but the most obvious one is to treat others how you want to be