Marginalization of Animals

这篇essay描述了，自19世纪开始，动物们渐渐在工业化城市的崛起下消失了，而公共动物园同时成立。动物正在消失。更重要的是,动物园真让人失望。凝视对方可能是一个合同对人和动物,就像人与老虎的图片。但人们往往从他们的栖息地暴力驱逐动物,动物园,让他们食物、宠物,和吉祥物。发展的工业化和破坏自然,本合同不存在,这也揭示了人的冷漠。

In this picture, a man and an animal are crawling and staring each other at the same time. We can see clearly that they are both trapped in a boat without food or anything else. They want to kill and then eat each other by instinct. They may still have some mercy for each other. At the same time, they are afraid for each other, they stare not just because their hunger, but for their horror. They just keep this balance, not hurting and not flinching.

According to John Berger, in the 19th century, animals gradually disappeared during the rise of urban industrialization, while the public zoo was established at the same time. For instance, the London Zoo was founded in 1828, and the Berlin Zoo was founded in 1844. They brought a high reputation for these countries. It’s a symbol of imperial power and wealth, but also the endorsement colonial powers. This so-called freedom is artificial, human beings stare at these animals just like they enjoy the museum exhibits. Zoo has become a tomb to the right of survive and life. On the other hand, animals also have become pets to human beings. They joined the families, were trained to be docile human puppets and loss all of their nature.

Marginalization is the conclusion made by John Berger. Animals are disappearing everywhere. What’s more, the zoo is rather disappointing. Gazing at each other could be a contract for people and animals, just like the man and the tiger do in the picture. But people tend to expel animals from their habitat violently, and make them food, pets, and zoo mascots. With development of the industrialization and destroy to nature, this contract does not exist, which also reveals human’s coldness.