In the story “Vestiges,” the author says, “Kim was often, also, faintly aware of a past much more distant than that of the ferry, of a time on earth when cows were turning into whales.” The cow, believing that whales are descended from cows, is symbolic to her dissatisfaction with her surroundings and her desire to be living a different kind of life. The writer also says that the cow “carried the memory of the two hour long journey of her ancestors, Holsteins ferried over to the island.” This implies that the cow is remembering events that happened to her ancestors. The ones that lived on the mainland before being ferried over were not living in the confined environment of the island. They had the relative freedom of the mainland. The ancestors before them were turning into whales and had the freedom of the sea and the cow longed for places she had never seen. She has the memories of her distant ancestors and longs for their life. She was on the wrong dock for the ev

In both stories the characters get comfort from the ones that love them. In “Vestiges,” the little girl on the farm can see in the cow’s eyes how unhappy she is. She can sense that the cow wants to be somewhere else, so she soothes her by singing to her a favorite song, “Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea…”

The reversal of roles between the mothers and the children is interesting. In “Vestiges” the mother fantasizes about being in a place that she can not be but her calf is content living on the farm. The author states that “The calf grows more gregarious in nature every day despite the pull in her hooves, her leg muscles, her teats, and at the center of her throat that was always wanting to take her away from the others, wanting her not only to remember her mother’s strange song but also to fulfill it.” This is how the calf’s mother felt also. But as the calf grows older the song grows faint and foreign to the calf. The calf can sympathize with its mother but does not feel the same as her.

There is irony in the titles of the stories as well. Vestige means a trace or visible sign of something that no longer exists. The memories that the cow has of her distant ancestors are like a vestige. She has faint memories of their lives but they no longer exist. The mother in “Inherit” says that the only thing her daughter inherited from their rebellion was her fathers blond hair and her mothers tears, but she has also inherited their rebellion in a sense.

In the story “Inherit,” even though the

Some topics in this essay:
South America, , south america, mother “inherit”, little girl, daughter south america, calf grows, coffee mango nectar, authors symbolism irony, inherited rebellion, mango nectar, distant ancestors, mother calf, daughter south, coffee mango,