Although, when compared to the complexity of men, that of animals may be considered much less, it is not fair nor correct to say that humans and lower animals do not share the same roots. This can be displayed in the similarities a teenage male may show to a tomcat, or in the way a mother is over-protective of her children the same way a canine would be of her pups. The sport in which the characters of man and animal especially overlap is the sport of hunting. The idea that men and animals are naturally equal may be illustrated, through various employed literary elements, in the short story, "The Boar Hunt- by José Vasconcelos, as well as in the poem, "The Fox and the Woodcutter- by Aesop.
In "The Boar Hunt- by Vasconcelos, the looming idea of adventure attracts four friends to the sport of hunting. "On Sundays [they] used to go on hunting parties. [They] roamed the fertile glens, stalking, generally with poor results, the game of the warm region around the coast, or [they] entertained [themselves] killing birds that flew in the sunlight during the siesta hour- (Vasconcelos 8). The author, through imagery, makes a comparison between any predator animal (such as a lion) and the men by using the word "stalking."" This motif of men in the natural world is carried on throughout the short story. For example, the setting of most of the story is in a very natural scene. Here, the speaker of the story narrates in first person and describes the scenery:.
Whenever we climbed a hill and gazed at the imposing range of mountains in the interior, its attractiveness stirred us and we wanted to climb it. What attracted us more was the trans-Andean region: fertile plateaus extending on the other side of the range in the direction of the Atlantic toward the immense land of Brazil. (Vasconcelos 8).
Through imagery, the author sets men in the natural world. This creates a subconscious balancing of man and animal.
