Verified Document

Rhetorical Analysis Of Jeffery Massons The Pig Who Sang To The Moon Essay

Pig Book Review Perhaps one might, upon reading the title of the book, find that it is more suitable for a bed time story. I agree since the author, Jeffrey Masson, has taken to treating his readers like a bunch of children, in a bid to entrance them so that they do not mind his flawed reasoning. The title doesn't tell anything about the fact that the book is really a study of "the emotional world of domesticated animals." The author, Jeffrey Masson, was once the head of Sigmund Freud Archives, and had once said that Freud covered cases of child abuse for the purpose of backing his "seduction" theory -- that the patients had wanted to be seduced as children. Ever since, Jeffrey Masson has been revealing cases of abuse, including those featured in studies and animal abuse by man (Cohu, 2004).

In a narrative that is fairly typical of his writing, Masson notes that in a manner similar to human beings, pigs too are individuals. Masson's writing is filled with trickery, in that, acceptance of the fact that the word individual applies to all of us as humans, and also that it applies the same way to animals, such as pigs, then, in other words, we will have accepted the assertion that pigs are humans. This particular assertion is supported by several anecdotes, including one about pigs who grunt in pleasure or wag their tails in happiness or of a pig named Pru that rescued its owner who was stuck in a marsh, or of another pig who went searching for help, after its owner had a heart attack. Masson also argues that people's perception about pigs has always been that they are dirty animals, and that the attitudes of humans are even far worse and embedded with quite ugly phrases when referring to other humans, such as: you are a...

Masson further argues that not only are our phrases against pigs, but also our ideas, and he makes similar arguments about the attitudes of humans against all other domesticated animals. However, according to Cohu (2004), if we were to follow Masson's arguments, it would mean that all similes and metaphors ought not to be used so as to treat these animals fairly.
Masson's earlier book, When Elephants Weep, was the first work since the era of Darwin to investigate the animal emotions, particularly, wild animals. His latest book titled the 'pig book' takes a different angle. It examines the world of domesticated animals and reports shocking findings, revealing that farm animals too have emotions and consciousness. In his latest work, Masson looks into anecdotes, scientific research, his experiences, history and also reviews literature on different domestic animals like chickens, goats, sheep, cows and pigs over duration of 60 months. His book is one of the few works that not only shows the importance of farm animals, but also gives them dignity, in contrast to how we normally treat them by killing, shearing, milking or even eating them (Buffalolib, n.d.). It is a fact that many behaviorist scientists are of the opinion that we can never know what makes animals happy. However, Masson believes differently, he argues that an animal can be joyous if it is living according to its inherent nature. Thus, according to his argument, domesticated animals are the saddest or suffer the most compared to wild ones. He gives an example to back his argument when he says that Chickens would love to nestle at night with friends and that they can't do this by being locked…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Buffalolib. (n.d.). The Pig who sang to the Moon: The emotional world of farm animals. Retrieved from Buffalo and Erie County Public Library: http://www.buffalolib.org/vufind/Record/1253534/Reviews

Cohu, W. (2004, January 19). Pigs know how to love. Retrieved from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3610434/Pigs-know-how-to-love.html

Jaine, T. (2004, January 31). Pigs may fly. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/31/society

Masson, J. M. (2003). The Pig Who Sang To The Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals. London: Jonathan Cape.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Anthropomorphism and Animal Violence Human
Words: 941 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

'There's no question he had a remarkable repertoire with bears and had a remarkable ability for them to tolerate him ... (but) just so people don't get the wrong idea, Tim definitely knew there were bears out there that were bad medicine.'" (Manning, p. 1) The phrase 'bad medicine' here implies a certain moral proposition in the bear's behavior, attributing a distinctly human way of perceiving the act of killing

Anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphic Art How
Words: 2001 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

4. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps Figure 8. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps' "The Monkey Painter," 1833. (Source: http://dalihouse.blogsome.com/2007/04/26/beasts-get-the-babes Figure 9. ( Source: http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Image:The_Experts%2C_1837_by_Alexandre-Gabriel_Decamps.jpg) Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was an artist who often used animals portrayed as human beings to satirize society and especially the formal artistic community of the time. He was opposed to falsity and pretentions and the often biased views of the academic art coterie of the time was a subject of some of his works. This can be

Sophocles Oedipus
Words: 580 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Sophocles' Oedipus the King Look up and/or reflect on the meaning of: Tragedy: A tragedy is any event which causes great suffering and stress, such as the death of a loved one or a natural disaster. In the context of Greek literature, tragedy was the most popular form of theatre, with storytellers relying on the rhetorical technique of tragic irony to create emotionally resonant tales of lost love and territorial conquest. Philosophy: The

Primate Behavior Research There Can Be Big
Words: 1691 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Primate Behavior Research There can be big differences in the messages from a scholarly, or scientific, article and a main stream, or non-scientific article. The titles and the messages written in the articles can give readers entirely different meanings. The original article may state the study was done one way, but the main stream article tries to write in layman terms and may miss the entire meaning, or the way the

Proof to the Fact That
Words: 3292 Length: 10 Document Type: Thesis

Previous to Darwin, it has been considered that animals had nothing in connection with humans, since their brutish behavior had been very different from the sociable and civilized one displayed by people. French philosopher Rene Descartes apparently thought of animals to be nothing but machines that acted in conformity to the same laws to which inanimate matter had functioned. Quite the reverse happened when concerning humans, as, in spite

David Hume Philosophy What Is
Words: 854 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

"that the author of nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man; though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed," indicating that there is existence of Deity who has similarity to man but us more apportioned to the deeds and the works of His hands. 7. How is anthropomorphism used in relation to the argument? Anthropomorphism is used in relation to

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now