Show Me the Love!
Page 6
Puppies build empathy in kids. It is important for a child to have a pet to take care of when they are very young, as the brain wiring for empathy needs to be set in the first 5-7 years. If not developed early on, it’s just not there. If the empathy does not get wired in they will never be able to have healthy relationships with other humans or animals, which is part of the problem with child soldiers and kids in slums and refugee camps. The sensitivities of other humans and creatures are alien to them.
Kids who torture animals may well become serial killers.
Unfortunately for some people they do not have loving and sustaining relationships with other humans. For some, the relationship with a pet is the only available substitute. You can create an effective character arc by taking a person from pets-only relating to being able to relate in a more healthy way to other humans. When they stumble or face a set-back, how they interact with the animal can reflect that.
Pre-teen girls have a propensity for horses, the psychology of which is exceedingly analyzed and ranges from the safe-yet-powerful creature that is tame to their own beck-and-call to the physical stimulation of riding, though typically the naive girls do not know why it feels so good.
The value of human to animal relationships cannot be dismissed. Whether they represent a metaphor for the character, offer an opportunity for the character to relate to something outside themselves, or give them a chance to access their childhood, this animal-to-human connection can be a strong and powerful force of revelation and motivation for your character.
How it serves us now
Hunting animals have worked alongside humans for millennia, be they falcons, pointers, fox-hounds, carrier pigeons, etc. Though they are not necessarily thought of as pets, domesticated animals have moved human progress forward by leaps and bounds. Where would we be without cattle, chickens, pigs and sheep, draft animals such as horses and oxen. Many of those do become pets for kids living on farms and ranches, though that country lifestyle is rare these days.
Professional dogs are trained to sniff out various things: escaped prisoners, illegal substances, bombs, cancer, impending epileptic fits, etc. Their skills and focused dedication save thousands of lives each year.
More and more these days rescue dogs are sent in to search for humans trapped in collapsed buildings! One even went on the Bin Ladin raid.
Service dogs bring mobility and close companionship to the blind, and they’ve been known to help solve some mysteries in books and media, too.
Medical science has proven that having a cat or dog to pet is helpful to recuperation from illness and to control blood pressure. Many rehab units and retirement homes have in-house pets who wander around the place interacting with the patients to the betterment of all.
The keeping of colourful songbirds in charmingly constructed cages is a hobby for many older gentlemen in parts of Asia. They gather with their birds in open-air restaurants in a rainbow palette of sight and song.
And then there are the farm animal contests at county fairs and the international contests for best-in-show where human pride rather than love may well be the main driver.
Examples in Myth and Legend
The first card in the Tarot deck Major Arcana is “The Fool”. A naive young man, travel bag and staff over his shoulder, is about to step off a cliff and into the great unknown for what he obviously thinks will be a merry adventure. There’s a small white dog traveling with him. The dog’s name is “Argo” and variously represents exuberance and love for life, loyalty, innocence, and the need to start any great undertaking at an elemental level.
Many mythologies combine human and animal traits to come up with exotic creatures such as the sphinx, centaurs, chimeras, and the animal gods of dynastic Egypt.
Witches and wizards usually have an animal “familiar”. Harry Potter’s is the owl. A black cat is the traditional knowledgeable creature who is a messenger for the magic-maker.
Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book is a charming adventure in interspecies bonding between Mowgli the human boy and the many jungle creatures, as well as between the creatures themselves.
Examples in History and Current Events
English King Charles II during the Restoration period always had the little “foot-warmer” Corgis around him and they have remained the dog of choice for the English royal family.
Genghis Khan and his Mongol Horde conquered a huge part of Asia, the Far East, the Middle East, and the Near East on the swift and sturdy Mongolian ponies, treasuring them often more than their wives.
PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – has pressured change in many industries, including media production ala the “no animal was harmed” disclaimer. Their beliefs and actions, sometimes radical, are rich fodder for dramatic conflict. Save the Whales, Greenpeace, and other animal rights organizations dedicate resources to protecting various animals. They too offer opportunities for conflict in your stories.
While working to protect animals from the ill-will or ignorance of humans is admirable, pet-love can also get way out of hand in the other direction. E.g. the “handbag barkers” of celebrity show-offs, the heiress who leaves her millions to her cats (an action just begging for probating the will), or the unlicensed amateur breeder who keeps 26 Dalmatian pups in her house and is busted by the SPCA.
Working dogs can lead the blind, sniff out epileptic attacks and cancer, keep elderly people company and lower their blood pressure, and help humans in many other ways.
K-9 law enforcement dogs form very strong bonds with their human partners.
And then there’s that old saying, often proven true, that people resemble their pets, and vice versa.
Examples in Media
There is a long history of pets in cinema, perhaps because they play such a big part in so many people’s lives, and in great part no doubt because they evoke such strong emotions.
In animation some animals are pets, some are anthropomorphized animals. Some communicate with humans but remain animals, such as Lassie, who was always able to get across to others that, “Timmy has fallen into the well!”
In the very popular 1982 E.T. movie the young boy was protective of the little alien and treated him like somebody’s loveable lost pet.
Other animals that bond with humans are King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, and Godzilla. In the Matthew Broderick version Godzilla the huge ape sniffs Broderick and then recognizes him throughout the story.
Watch the documentary on the making of Winged Migration to see humans who love, care for, and communicate with birds. This “making-of” feature is way more interesting than the film itself.
A famous human-animal friendship is that of Tarzan and his pal Cheetah the chimp. Roy Rogers had Bullet [a dog] and Trigger [a horse] who usually played into the story line of the movies and TV series. His wife and adventure partner Dale Evans had a horse named Buttermilk
Stories sometimes have animals talking to animals in the presence of humans, like in Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Generally the humans don’t know they can talk so you can put a lot of insight, wisdom, and humour into the mouths of the critters.
Mythical, mystical, and totally imagined animals populate many fantasy, sci-fi, and supernatural stories. You can take great liberties with how the creatures look and what they do, as was so well done in Avatar with the horses and the dragons, and the ferocious creatures, too. In Game of Thrones it’s dragons.
YouTube is crowded with animal videos, from interspecies bonding to talking dogs to cute kittens.
And really, you’ve got to have Scooby-Doo in here.
Examples in Music
“If I could talk to the animals” from Dr. Doolittle
“I Wanna Be Like You” from Jungle Book
Mister Ed theme song – 1960s TV series
“It Isn’t Easy Being Green” – Kermit the Frog
“Wildfire” – Michael Martin Murphy
Symbols
The animal itself is often the symbol for a character
’s personality: brave like a lion, crafty like a fox, soft as a kitten, loyal as a dog, etc.
Leashes and cages represent control and confinement.
Bared teeth and bloody claws can indicate ferocity.
The animal pelt often points to humans conquering some aspects of Mother Nature, as with Hercules who wears a lion skin. Typically the animals are predators, and are worn by warriors. You don’t see many hippo head masks.
Key Element – The Shining Action
Recognition - The moment when the faithful pet recognizes the master no one else knows, like with Argo and Odysseus reunited after twenty years. To build up the tension take three steps towards this.
1) The pet’s ears perk up, “Is that a familiar voice?” The dog in Memphis Belle knows the sound of the B-17 bomber’s engines.
2) They sniff the air trying to analyze the elusive scent. In the Chronicles of Riddick the guard beasts on Crematoria recognize “something” about Riddick, who says, “It’s an animal thing”.
3) After a moment or two of indecision, full recognition sweeps over both the animal and the human and they reunite in a release of heartfelt emotion, as in Warhorse when the horse recognizes the kid’s whistling and goes to him.
This can also work for the Antagonist by having the animal reject or attack the bad guy. Enemy of the State has a little yapper dog who’s bitten the CIA agent trying to bug Will Smith. The wound troubles him throughout the rest of the movie.
In Payback, a huge guard dog named after the character Porter is a trap for the bad guy looking for Porter. He’s pointed into the next room and attacked by the dog. The dog gets shot trying to save his master.
Revelation - The animal leads the humans to learn something they would not otherwise have known about. Perhaps the dog smells the dead body. Or as in an episode of the Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries, a parrot helps identify a murderer. Animals can dig up treasure, pluck it off mountains, gallop down seemingly wrong roads only to discover fantastic places, etc.
Protection - Animals protecting humans calls forth a strong, primitive response in us of appreciation, recognition of our innate oneness as life-forms on the planet, and the inherent nobility of some creatures. Some examples are dolphins saving drowning swimmers; Hooch dies protecting Turner in Turner and Hooch, but also leaves a litter of pups behind; the dire wolves of Game of Thrones protecting the Stark children; dogs staying by their felled owners [unlike cats who’d just as soon eat them....not that cats don’t have lots of other redeeming qualities].
Written Descriptions
How do the characters talk about the animals and how do they talk to the animals? Show us emotions and motives behind both. Is it a harsh voice or a gentle voice; respectful or dismissive? Think of the difference between someone who runs a game preserve versus a hunter just out for a bragging-rights trophy, as in the British TV series Wild at Heart.
Do the animals talk to each other like in Babe, Charlotte’s Web, and Winnie the Pooh? If you anthropomorphize animals, give them each a unique voice and point of view, just as you would your human characters.
Do the animals actually speak to the people in your story, like in The Chronicles of Narbia and in many myths? Or is the communication telepathic like in Dragonriders of Pern and in the minds of many pet owners. How clear are those lines of communication? What happens when something is lost in translation?
When using action verbs be sure to give us an adverb to let us know the emotion behind that action. E.g., He whips the horse gently. He whips the horse cruelly. He reinforces the training with a flick of the whip.
With all due respect to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat series of books for screenwriters, there’s a lot more drama about a person who does not save the cat. A story in which the animal does not win or survive can be very dramatic as in the classic mid-century film Old Yeller, where the beloved and heroic dog has to be put down. Then there was the pet bunny who got boiled in Fatal Attraction. The animal’s demise became the code phrase for stalking. The threat of an animal being killed can heighten the drama and serve the larger story arc.
When appropriate, tell us about the animal’s emotions. E.g. The cat hisses angrily. The kitten purrs affectionately.
Cinematic Techniques
Shoot from the animal’s POV [Point of View]. Is it the pig Babe or the elephant Babar? That point of view determines how the animal character perceives the world and their place in it. You give us a sense of who they are by showing us their perspective. You can use it when they are “talking” so we see the reactions to their words. You can also use this angle to bring attention to something important in the plot or dialogue. It can be about a lesson being taught.
When shooting an animal’s POV – depending on your style and genre – consider showing us how they actually see things. Dogs see mostly in black and white, birds and insects see infrared, flies see with a thousand facets. For more on how different animals see --
http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/01/14/animal-vision-color-detection-and-color-blindness/
Shoot from alongside the animal, which lends itself to the conversational mode. It also demonstrates the relationship between the animal and other characters. E.g. in the old TV series Mr. Ed, the horse Ed and his human Wilbur are shot with their heads at the same level, implying equality between the two.
Use a CU [Close Up] on some part of the animal’s anatomy that is symbolic of their character or situation: a snake shedding its skin, a glossy or mangy coat, healthy or wounded legs or feet, etc.
Use the ECU [Extreme Close Up] on the animal’s eyes (one, two, or a thousand eyes) just as you would use an ECU on human eyes - to reveal intensity and fire, a shift in attitude presaging a shift in action, some heretofore hidden aspect of their nature, etc.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that secondary and tertiary characters are there to reveal something about your main characters. Use a pet or other animal to reveal some personality trait, a quirk, or an otherwise hidden agenda. Think of the dog in the charming animated film UP; he tells us so much about the characters by the way he interacts with them, from his grumpy old owner Carl to the young scout Russell to the evil Charles Muntz.
Use animals to symbolize psychological aspects of your characters.
Use them as conduits to get characters to interact. It’s a “well known fact” that a guy walking a cute dog is a “chick magnet”.
If it does fit in with your story’s style, keep in mind the inherent dignity of animals, their special intelligences, and their often rich personalities. They can be special story characters in their own right.
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Exercise #1 – Awareness
What is the most unusual pet or humanoid/animal relationship you can name from myth, history, media, or real life?
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Exercise #2 – Writing
Select/write a short scene that has one type of animal active in the story line. Change the animal and write the same scene but with the influence of the quite different creature: a parrot and then a python, a cat then a hamster, a dragon and then a goldfish, etc.
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Further Reading
Aesop’s Fables
Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin
Dragonriders of Pern – the entire series by Anne McCaffrey
Horse Whisperer, The – Nicholas Evans
Inner Drives – Pamela Jaye Smith
Power of the Dark Side – Pamela Jaye Smith
Symbol and Symbolic – Schwaller de Lubicz [Egyptian animal symbology]
Symbols.Images.Codes – Pamela Jaye Smith
Further Viewing
Aristocats, the
Benji
Best in Show
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Beethoven
Black Beauty
Budweiser Clydesdale superbowl commercial
Dr. Doolittle
Finding Nemo
Flipper – TV series
Fly Away Home
Horse Whisperer, The
How to Train Your Dragon
K-911
Lady and the Tramp, The
Lassie
Little Mermaid, The
Marley & Me
Mister Ed
My Friend Flicka
National Velvet
Old Yeller
Payback
Rin Tin Tin
Sea Biscuit
Secretariat
Show Chickens http://www.videolala.com/watch-showchickens-2001
Turner and Hooch
War Horse
Wild at Heart
Yearling, The
CHAPTER SIX
Love of Art
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Don McLean – “Vincent” (Starry Starry Night)
Your characters, even in romantic comedies, supernatural romances, or historical novels, will be richer for having other interests than just romantic or sexual love. Show us real people with real lives and professions, vocations and callings, passions and drives. If those are focused on the Arts you can then bring more unexpected, idealistic, and emotional elements into your storyline.