One of my perspective courses, Exploring Human/Animal Bonds taught me to reexamine how people have used animals to convey meaning. As someone who loves animals, I was curious to how animals were used to convey different meanings in media and print. I read several articles, novels, comic books, and film that included animals and I was required to find the reason why an animal was used. Finding the meaning was difficult at times when authors used complex topics and feelings to convey thought. I learned to examine material in different contexts and identify many points of view. I have used this skill when watching animal media and while watching unskippable adds.
By attaching my final rhetoric for this class, you can see how authors have utilized animals to convey challenging truths and taboo topics. I identified how Disney’s Zootopia, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus each used animals in their stories to highlight different conflicts. I was excited to work on this capstone assignment because I find how authors use animals for their own theses interesting.