An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books 作者

投稿類別：英文寫作類篇名： An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books 作者：張庭頤。國立新竹女子高級中學。高二 1 班黃辰淳。國立新竹女子高級中學。高二 1 班指導老師：高典君老師 An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books I. Introduction Growing up reading so many children’s books, we wonder why people choose to tell stories using animals as characters. Indeed, in The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, it is mentioned that “it seems that adults now tend to think of „kids‟ as basically animal-like beings who must be taught how to act like civilized humans” (Nodelman & Reimer, 2003). Using animals as characters could therefore be considered a good way to make children comprehend the stories. Since the twenty-three tales written by Beatrix Potter are regarded as prominent children’s books that remain celebrated after more than a century, we decided to take them as examples while digging into this field. Beatrix Potter was a British writer who was born in the Victorian era. She initially told stories in order to enrich the letters she wrote to her former governess’s son. The stories she came up with later became the basis of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. In the 23 tales written by Beatrix Potter, each book is specifically about a different character. Most of the leading characters in the stories are animals living in the rural regions of England, and the stories are mainly about daily lives or adventures of those human-like animals. In the series of Peter Rabbit Books, we discovered that most animals in the stories live a human-like lifestyle. For instance, they recognize the concept of kinship strongly and open their own grocery stores to offer daily essentials as if they were in a small, independent society. They even wear delicate clothes and talk in polite manners exactly like gentlemen and ladies in the Victorian era. Nonetheless, there are not only animals, but also human characters like farmers and hunters in the stories. We feel curious about the meaning behind this and are eager to do further research on it. In this thesis, we will discuss and analyze the stories through animal characters, human characters, and the writing techniques of Beatrix Potter. The main purpose of the thesis is to disclose the possible reasons that Beatrix Potter chose to write her stories using both animal characters and human characters and how she dealt with the interactions between them. Also, we will figure out the connections between these elements and the meanings behind the settings of this series. Owing to the popularity of Peter Rabbit Books, people have already done lots of research on them; thereby, our purpose is to give readers a different viewpoint of this classical work. Last, since children’s literature plays an important role in the field of literature, we also want to provide readers with another perspective and a deeper understanding of it via this thesis. II. Body 1. The Animal World 1 An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books 1.1 Animal Society In Peter Rabbit Books, animals seem to live in an independent society of their own. Our theory could be explained according to the two elements in the following part. 1.1.1 Kinship In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, we can know that there are five family members in Peter Rabbit’s family, who are Mrs. Rabbit, Peter, and three little sisters of Peter. Also, in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, little Benjamin Bunny, Peter’s cousin, finds that Mr. and Mrs. McGregor, the farmer and his wife, are getting out; thus, he and Peter go to Mr. McGregor’s garden to get Peter’s clothes back and steal some vegetables as well. Unfortunately, they get stuck in a basket by Mr. McGregor’s cat for five hours; finally, Peter’s uncle, old Mr. Bunny, comes to rescue them and whips them with a switch. Furthermore, in The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, it is said that Mrs. Rebeccah Puddle-Duck is the sister-in-law of Jemima Puddle-Duck. This shows that these animals have a strong recognition of kinship. Since family is a place for socialization, the concept of kinship is the basis of a society. In Peter Rabbit Books, we observe that those animals sustain close family relationships. As a result, we regard this as an essential element for the formation of the animal society. 1.1.2 Business Activity Another human-like behavior the animals show is business activity. In The Tale of Ginger and Pickles, Ginger and Pickles open a village shop together. The small shop sells daily essentials for animals. Unluckily, the shop encounters an economic crisis and closes down later on because they give unlimited credit to the customers. Other shops and vendors are mentioned in the text as well, such as Tabitha Twitchit’s shop, which is in rivalry with the Ginger and Pickles’ and some tradesmen’s carts which sell sponge cake and butter-buns. After Ginger and Pickles’ shop is closed, Tabitha Twitchit raises half a penny to the price of everything. A mouse named Mr. John Dormouse and his daughter even start to sell candles that melt easily in warm weather, and Sally Henny Penny opens a grocery shop soon after that. Those business activities are extremely human-like. Firstly, they use actual money to buy groceries. “There was an envelope lying on the counter… it is the rates and taxes, ￡3 19 11 3/4” (Potter, 1909). They even have to pay rates and taxes for opening the store. Furthermore, just like what happens often in the human world, taxes become the last straw when Ginger and Pickles are struggling whether they should shut down their shop. Secondly, the behaviors of Tabitha 2 An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books Twitchit, Mr. John Dormouse and his daughter indicate they are clever and business-minded. Lastly, animals in the story all work hard to earn a living. This is in The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, where the hedgehog is working diligently and becomes very satisfied with her work. The hard working characters not only show that those animals understand one has to work hard to feed the family but also reflect the tone of Victorian England when the stories were written. 1.2 Anthropomorphism Animal characters play vital roles in Beatrix Potter’s books. Actually, “the history of children‟s literature demonstrates that authors often use anthropomorphism didactically” (Dubois, 2014). In this part, we will analyze the way anthropomorphism is used in Peter Rabbit Books to prove those animal characters are human-like. 1.2.1 Clothing Clothing is a key element of anthropomorphism. “It marks them off from the purely animal, from the completely savage creatures who don‟t wear clothes” (Nodelman & Reimer, 2003). In The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Tiggy-Winkle, who calls herself an excellent clear-starcher, keeps talking about the clothes she is washing for other animals, such as a pair of stockings that belong to Sally Henny-penny and a little scarlet waistcoat of Cock Robin. This provides us with the idea that animals in the stories wear a variety of clothes instead of mere fabric. Furthermore, their need for someone who knows a special technique to help them wash the clothes indicates that they care about those clothing and their appearances like the people at that time. Throughout The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter, animals rarely show up without clothes; and when they do, the scene often serves a certain purpose. Take The Tale of Peter Rabbit as an example. Peter Rabbit wore a blue little jacket and a pair of shoes before he escaped from Mr. McGregor’s farm. However, the clothing becomes an obstacle to his escape and almost leads him to death. Only when he decides to abandon the clothing does he have a chance to escape successfully. Nonetheless, taking off the clothes might seem like a sign of showing animal instincts, having the intelligence to do so is another sign of human-like behavior. This proves what many critics have been saying, Peter “ennobled with a human name… resonate[s] with human children…with both animal and human nature” (Kutzer, 2000), and he plays the role as a human being and an animal child simultaneously (黃歆淳，2015). In the same story, there is another animal beside Peter rabbit and his family: Mr. McGregor’s cat. The cat reappears in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny. Nevertheless, compared to the rabbits, the cat never wears clothes. It is apparent that the cat is regarded as Mr. McGregor’s belonging instead of an individual, like Peter rabbit and Benjamin. Therefore, in both stories, it never speaks nor shows any signs of human-like behavior due to the fact that it is only a pet. 3 An Analysis of Human-Animal Relations in Peter Rabbit Books 1.2.2 Etiquette Etiquette is a set of rules created by humans; however, in the series, we can also see that animals follow etiquette as well. In The Tailor of Gloucester, there is a group of mice that live in the tailor’s house secretly. Simpkin, the tailor’s cat, is fond of the mice, and it likes to trap those mice in teacups and mugs when the tailor is out at work. One day, the tailor accidentally finds those mice because of little noises under the teacup. After he lifts up the tea-cup, to his surprise, those mice not only wear Victorian style clothes, but also show courtesy by bowing to the tailor.

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