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Gurkeet Lalli, Anthony LeFuentas, Sheran Sahota, Irfan Tahiri
ENG3U7
Mrs. Price
June 1, 2009
“The Animals in that Country” by Margaret Atwood: A Commentary
Has North American culture lost its connection to the spiritual world? In Margaret
Atwood’s poem The Animals in that Country, she believes this is the case. Her poem
discusses the differences “that country,” and “this country,” place on the significance of
animals in their respective societies and their link to the spiritual world. Atwood
combines her ironic and subjective tone, her animistic imagery reinforced by her diction,
and her narrative structure in order to illustrate the true meaning behind her poem—the
lack of the shamanistic perspective evident in today’s modern culture.
Atwood’s ironic tone is made apparent to the reader through the physical narrative
structure of the poem. The speaker begins the poem with, “In that country the animals
have the faces of people” (1-2) and indents the second half of the poem to represent a
shift in the narrative structure of the poem, The indent of the physical structure in The
Animals in that Country augments the physical distancing of humans from animals as the
stanzas have a distance between them. The subjective and ironic tone of the speaker is
evident when the speaker creates a contrast between the two worlds as the shift begins
with, “In this country the animals have faces of animals.” (21-23) This repetition
reinforces the distance between humans and animals as animals are not revered in “this
country” but treated as just animals. They have neither been incorporated nor valued, and
little attention is paid to their role in society in the speaker’s country, creating a
subjective tone.. Atwood’s use of anthropomorphism in the first line of the poem
illustrates that the animals are a part of that society and are more than just simple
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creatures as they connect humans to the spiritual world. The use of the word “that” refers
to past European culture and the word “this” refers to modern North American culture.
The speaker’s subjective tone towards North American culture is evident as they end the
poem by stating that, “They [animals] have the faces of no one”. (28-29) This emphasizes
the speaker’s hostility towards the West by reinforcing the belief that they have lost all
ties to their spiritual self.
Atwood uses imagery in The Animals in that Country to show that the
disconnection between humans and nature causes nature to become unnatural. This is
evident as she contrasts the death of animals in both a natural form and a manufactured
form in her poem. The imagery of death in the natural world is supported by diction that
provides an elegance and sacredness to the death of an animal. For example, the speaker
states, “The fox run politely to the earth, huntsmen standing around him, fixed in their
tapestry of manners,” (5-8) “the ceremonial cats,” (3) and “an elegant death” (11) to
describe the importance of animals in that society. This contrasts with the second half, in
which the speaker’s diction shifts to criticize the loss of a shamanistic connection in
North American society. “Their eyes flash once in car headlights and are gone. Their
deaths are not elegant” (24-26) signifies how the once sacred animals, have little value in
North American society and that individuals have become accustomed to a manufactured
world rather than a spiritual one. Atwood creates an antithesis in her poem as she
contrasts the images of death in the two different worlds. By showing the elegance of
death in the natural world and the ignorance in the civilized world the speaker sends a
clear message to their country that animals are sacred but they have lost all respect for
them.
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Atwood’s use of temporal and spatial aesthetics creates a contrast between past
European culture and today’s manufactured society. Her use of spatial aesthetics when
describing animals in “that country” causes them to become immortal through her use of
static imagery. Images such as “tapestry of manners,” (8) “heraldic brand” (12) and
“thickened with legend” (20) are used to describe the permanence of animals in a
spiritual world even while Atwood presented images of their death, showing that animals
were immortal because they were intermediaries to our spiritual selves. Furthermore,
Atwood uses static diction to reinforce the immortality of animals as seen through the
words “fixed,” (7) “stamped,” (18) and “resonant” (18) creating the effect that the
animals are necessary in connecting to the spiritual world. In contrast to her use of spatial
aesthetics, she employs temporal aesthetics to show that animals are not important in
today’s society. This is evident as “their eyes flash once” (24-25) showing that they are
not permanent in time but are mortal. This illustrates the disconnection of humans from
the spiritual world as the animals are not of importance anymore.
Margaret Atwood criticizes our disconnection through her narrative structure,
imagery and diction. The poem is written from a shamanistic perspective as the speaker
tries to convince the reader that this connection is important but missing in today’s
civilized society. The animals are sacred in shamanism as they connect human beings to
the spiritual world and in this poem the speaker becomes the healer as they expose the
flaws in western society and try to make human beings aware of their connection to
animals so that they can reconnect with their spiritual selves.
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