Literary Analysis Essay on "Zero Hour" and "I'am Taking Up Taxidermy" and "The Rat"

Introduction

Literary works share one aspect in common, and that is their content cannot be separated from the language used. In other words, language is constitutive of reality. The fact that language is a vehicle for though is apparent in two novels subject to current analysis "Zero Hour and I'am Taking Up Taxidermy by Morris Collins and "The Rat" by Kathleen Spivack. This essay will affirm that understanding literary works demands vigilant kind of reading where the audience pay focus on the syntax, mood, pace and tone in order to understand the factors that are beyond the characters control, including societal gender roles, past events and geography as well as the aspects that are within characters control including motivations, hobbies and activities that determine what character do and how the audience understand them.

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Comparisons and Contrasts Present in Characters' Motivations in Both Stories

The motivations of the characters in the two stories are somehow absurd; it is not something any person can predict through rational thinking. Like it is held in the text, How to Read Literature audience are warned 'not to confuse fiction with reality' (Eagleton 5). In the novel, the Rat, Anna Zygorzka included the role of the Rat in her letters due to her physique. It was a way of preparing to emphasize with her. Every time Anna wrote to Herbert, she made sure she attached evidence that a rat had indeed opened and read the letters, ''they occasionally arrived, tattered and humble'' (Spivack 181). When Anna is about to visit, she makes sure she includes Rat writing at the bottom of the letter. With ''equally exuberant scrawl with words that the good news is I am coming'' (Spivack 182). The Rat appeared; finally, she was small, with a long nose, three long hairs, and an unpleasing curvature.

In the same way, Charlie's father's motivation by picking the bobcat on the road is also absurd. The narrator asks Charlie to help him place the bobcat to the basement so that they can stuff it for mommy" (Collins 127). The intention of picking the bobcat on the road was to stuff it so that it could resemble the wife's lovely cat, which was no more.

Anna's motivation in 'The Rat' and Charlie's father's motivation in 'Zero Hour, and I'm Taking up Taxidermy' differ significantly. Anna's intention is for people to stop viewing her as a human being and to take her as if she is a rat. Research has revealed that individuals are now defined by what is peculiar to them, such as their "signature or inimitable personality" (Egleton 49). Anna introduces herself to Herbert's grandchild, "they call me the Rat" (Spivack 180). The movement is involving dehumanization from a human being to an animal.

On the other hand, Charlie's father wants to make a model of a living animal from a non-living bobcat, an act of humanization. The narrator carries out an operation on the non-living bobcat, "I have removed the innards and accidentally some of the bones and filled the body with newspapers, sawdust, and some strategically placed popsicle sticks for skeletal reinforcement" (Collins 130). At the end, the narrator makes a better cat than the dead family cat. Even where the cat was mangled, he made him whole and also added more flesh to make him fatter.

How Past Events Guide the Characters’ Actions in Both Stories

Anna had other people referring to her like a rat, and she also developed a perception of herself as a rat. Anna's past events can only be judged from her present actions as 'literary figures have no prehistory" (Eagleton 45). Though Anna reveals this when she meets with Herbert Grandchildren at the later part of the story, it is such a portrayal that is indeed the origin of her actions. Understanding the context of the story is vital to connecting events in the novel. The opening phrase in the Bible 'In the beginning is just similar to "once upon a time and just a time-honored way of starting a story' (Eagleton 18). Just like the Bible, an individual cannot judge the first words at the beginning of the text as to where the events all began.

Anna's physique makes her have thoughts about herself as unworthy of love. Characters who have experienced too much exhibit two contrary feelings 'inside knowledge and lofty remoteness' (Eagleton 12). After revealing to Herbert grandchildren that they call her a rat because she resembles one. Low self-esteem would make Anna willfully getting manipulated. Whenever she would meet Herbert every summer, 'she would read every book he recommended and also listened when he read aloud to her poetry or drama (184). However, Anna's intelligence was still intact, she would debate with Herbert, and it is evident that her letters were addressed in elegant handwriting.

After reading an article about feline athletic competitions, Charlie's mother in Taking up Taxidermy developed an idea of something that would alleviate their sorrows from harsh economic situation to something small. Ideally, Charlie's mother clings to the notion that their thirty-pound Maine Cat would become a prizewinning athlete. Charlie's mother's illusions from reading the novel are what made her unique (Eagleton 54). As a result, she treated the cat as a significant asset for the family. The wife spends much on the cat, "Outside through the back window, was the cat course my wife had built there" (Collins 127). Making a dream come true required so much effort in training the cat since it was clumsy with back legs ill-formed, making it almost next to impossible for the cat to either jump or do anything else apart from producing a sound of discomfort.

The Extent That Characters Activities Including Employment, Hobbies, Parenting, Play a Role in Their Respective Identities

The narrator in Taking up Taxidermy had lost his job, making him stay at home and perform roles that were earlier on performed by his wife. Charlie's father's actions reveal that the writer is a modernist, the kind of writers who are in "search of new modes of characterization, suitable to a post-Victorian age" (Eagleton 65). Charlie's father took up the responsibility of training Bangor, their dog. It had been something that would take his wife time since she would train the dog for hours. Thereby, he decided to take up the training due to charitable intentions. He chooses to hatch out a training plan premised on a hidden angle since it was among the things his father had taught him. Another responsibility that the narrator took over was that of taking care of Charlie. After the wife left for work, the narrator took Charlie to the bus stop before resuming to training the dog (Collins 125). Parenting responsibilities contributed to creating a fantastic coat mimicking the American general's coat of 1812 or the period thereof for Charlie. The attire was meant to improve Charlie's love for history, and the son got so much in love with it that it would only be removed while he was asleep.

Unemployment provided the narrator in Taking up Taxidermy with time to concentrate on his two epiphanies. Apart from the external factors that govern character's life such as getting fired, they are not "just the playthings of these powers, and they play an active role in shaping their destinies" (Eagleton 64). The narrator in Taking Up Taxidermy admits that ''my recent unemployment was the problem since I had the days to myself while my wife was at work" (Collins 125). But the character made himself busying trying to create value of his time at home. Upon finding a bobcat on the road, several epiphanies ran through his mind. A thought developed that 'no small gesture will balm my wife wounds like a kindly policeman escorting a lost child-so I have arranged this bobcat's features into a fierce grin of perpetual age" (Collins 131). Suppose the wife decided to leave; the bobcat would remind her that adult life can feel like an outright refurbishment, but it should not be free from surprises.

Psychologists have come to believe that hobbies and what an individual expose themselves to determine their actions, and such is evident in Taking Up Taxidermy. The piece follows a realist tradition that presents characters as "Complex, credible, fully rounded individuals (Eagleton 64). The wife is a believable character according to psychologists, she had a hobby in reading, and it is where she got the idea of a cat participating in athletics competitions. As a result, the wife treated their cat very warmly such that after its demise, she did not feel the need to stay in the marriage any longer. In the father's thoughts, it is apparent that the son will 'one day, having just ran over the family dog, or done any other million things that may erode the love of those we love, you'll look back at this moment and begrudge yourself" (Collins 129). The wife thought that the cat would win prizes and put the family on the map; thus, her commitment to training it for hours.

Though Herbert did not love the Rat, they had similar hobbies, which kept them together. Anna and Herbert got attached since they would play chess together the entire summer. Again, "their friendship grew through correspondence; Anna shared his passion for literature and language" (Spivack 191). The two characters shared a passion for language and literature. Since their first summer meeting, Herbert would not help but think about her regularly, particularly about her deformity and her eyes. Writing to each other kept Anna and Herbert together until the next summer.

Ways That the Non-Human Agents Interact With the Human Characters in Both Stories

Non-human characters are treated as having human abilities and personalities in the novel Taxidermy. The narrator's wife envisioned that Bangor, the family cat would participate in prizewinning athletics. The wife would even refer to the family cat as a human being. During training, she would talk to the cat, "Up Bangor," my wife would cry, Go Bangor, come to Bangor, good boy'' (Collins 127. Training was typical to the one that athletes go through "putting him on the slide or the swing, urging him into the tunnel with treats" (Collins 127). The family cat was indeed a significant member of the family.

By contrast, in the Novel, The Rat, a human being is treated as having non-human characteristics. In the modern times of ''mass culture and commerce, human beings come to seem increasingly faceless and interchangeable" (Eagleton 69). Anna is referred to as a 'deformed rat who could not stand straight when she walked, who moved slowly and spent most of the time lying on a sofa" (Spivack 182). Herbert even though that whiskers were growing out just next to Anna's nose.

Effect of Varying Contexts Including Gender Roles and Age on Mediating Characters

The friendship between Anna and Herbert blossomed since they were of the opposite sex. Herbert, at times, has to stand up and act more manly than any real man (Eagleton 65). He picks up the little Rat severally when they are together. Herbert wants the little Rat to feel loved, and even asks her, "How did you find me? As he carried her, weightless, shrunk into a third of herself, in his arms through the streets" (Spavick 191). The manner Herbert carried the little Rat was also expected to convey affection. It was in a way that bore her ceremoniously, and further draped her across his body.

Age mediates how the characters in the Rat and Taking Up Taxidermy relate to each other. It is with the aspect of dealings between individuals of different ages that modernist writers portray 'human consciousness as unfathomably complex" (Eagleton 66). When Anna finds Herbert with his grandchildren, they are in shock that the Rat is a very tiny woman even tinier than Maria herself. Anna introduces herself to Herbert grandchildren' they call me the Rat and then asks them, "Do you think I look a little bit like a rat?" (Spivack 191). The children do not answer in the affi...