Human’s relationship with animals, and the symbolism within

London and Poe’s use of animals in their stories are somewhat different. In “The Raven” the speaker is bothered by a bird tapping at his chamber door. The raven is shown for the first time in the story when “Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,/In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore” (ll.37-38). The speaker cannot ignore the thoughts of his lost lover Lenore, so the raven seems to be a supernatural being represented in the form of an animal. The raven has come to help him eliminate his thoughts by constantly rapping, “Nevermore”. London’s use of the animal in “To build a Fire” is somewhat different than Poe’s. In this story a man is hik

ing through the Yukon in deadly cold weather. He is advised not to go but makes the trek anyway. “At the man’s heels trotted a dog, a big native husky, the proper wolf-dog” (p. 1764) The man’s superior wits to the dog fail him while in the freezing woods, and the man dies. The dog’s instincts however are what keep him alive.

The animals used in both Poe’s and London’s works are both symbols for something else they are trying to portray in their stories. Poe’s poems are usually dark and related to death. A raven is a dark bird that has a stigma that comes along with it. This stigma is usually one of death and bad luck. In the poem, the raven is described as “Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-/Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”(ll. 46-47). Poe is trying to say that this bird, this raven, is one of evil, sorrow and death. The death that is being flaunted in the speakers face by this bird is the death of his lover, Lenore. Poe used an ideal animal for his symbolism of darkness sorrow and death in his poem. London uses a wolf in his story for symbolism. The man is traveling through the woods with his dog in the freezing cold. The man's motives for going through the deadly cold are purely from human reasons. He wants to meet up with his boys and search f

Some topics in this essay:
Lenore Poe, London Poe’s, Poe’s London’s, London Poe, Night’s Plutonian, Poe London, Allen Poe’s, American Literature, Jack London’s, symbolism stories, , “the raven”, relationship animals, “to build fire”, animals humans, build fire, build fire”, lover lenore, sorrow death, bird raven, relationship animals humans, animals relationship,