Why look at animals

English 1320
Final Draft
Why Look at Animal? In John Berger’s, “Why Look at Animals,” he discusses the relationship to humans and animals and how it has changed over time. Berger believes animals have become prisoners to humans and have no way out. They have lost their identity in the world and are now treated as objects. Berger discusses the realms of animals who live in zoos as opposed to them living free in the wild. Humans used to depend on animals for so much many years ago, but now they are just there for our entertainment and children’s pets. Through his many arguments, he delivers a very interesting essay about his views on animals. Berger claims that animals are crucial to our development of human life. He explains that a long time ago, animals such as horses and cows, were mainly used for food products to feed people. He believed animals were crucial to the development of language and human thought. Berger stated if our old ways of relating to animas disappears, then humans stop developing. This means that the world would become very different and dependent on other things rather than animals. Humans could not develop the way they have been used to doing throughout the decades. Animals could not be used as pets, be put in children’s stories, eaten as food products, and much more. This creates a real big problem when you think of the way humans develop as a nation and what major things they need and focus on with a huge factor being animals. All of these issues in Berger’s eyes would lead to isolation in the human race. Without animals, there is no telling where the world would be and how we would compensate for the loss of them. Nathaniel Wolloch, who wrote an article on “Animals in Enlightenment Historiography,” and talks about the way the use of animals, contributes to human progress and development. Late enlightenment historians examine their interest in animals, and how Comte de Buffon, and Enlightenment conjectural history influenced them. They discuss how as civilization spread, animals increasingly served humans needs. Norbert Alias, in the “Civilizing Process,” talks about the late eighteenth century when human beings in the West became consciously aware of civilization and there place in it. Humanity was undertaking a long mission of advancement and began addressing the importance of the human use of animals as an essential part of the tale of human progress. When there were cave paintings that were drawn years ago, animals were sometimes used to represent something. Deer, and elk were symbols to the people and that was considered pre-spoken language. With all that being said, I do not know how someone could say animals were not essential to the development of humans and language. Another claim Berger makes is that in zoos, and households, animals have lost their identity in the world and disappeared. This ties to human development because humans today are less dependent on animals, and animals cannot live up to there full potential of what they were made for. They do not know how to properly function like animals should, and are winding up trapped in zoos, and by owners in households. Animals no longer have much of a say, and Berger claims we have made animals into objects. He explains how we have filled our gap of loneliness with animals, giving them no identity for themselves. House pets become creatures of their owner’s way of life and become trapped. It is not good that animals have become dependent on their owners for everything, and cannot be dependent in any way for themselves. House pets are fun to have around, but that can really cripple a pet, along with its owner. This is a huge reason why animals have lost their identity in the world and cannot be independent individuals on their own anymore. June McNicholas wrote an article on “Pet Ownership and Human Heath,” for the British Medial Journal. She discusses the association between pet ownership and human health. The main question today, is if people should own pets. Some owners look past it because they have become so attached to their pets. People get attached to pets because they can enhance an owner’s social life, or decrease the feelings of loneliness and social isolation. People who have pets and consider them a part of the family, are not going to give them away because of possible health issues. People keep pets for reasons that go way beyond health issues. When a pet dies in a family, they might treat that death as serious as family members. This shows how bad humans have become cripple to pets, and animals are right there with them. Animals become dependent on their owners to feed them, and take the out to the bathroom, which leaves them no freedom at all.