Published Online:December 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES111224
Author Name:Divya Lekshmi M S, M Raja Vishwanathan and Isha Srishti Panna
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:112-125
The futility and brutality of war are overlooked most often in the egoistic race for power. The novel The Emergency Zoo is set against the backdrop of the impending Second World War when Hitler’s army was in full preparation to attack Poland. “When war breaks out, who will save the animals?” is the striking question Miriam Halahmy asks throughout the novel. War disrupts normalcy, even for those who have no say in it. Children and their companion animals who have no involvement in the war become scapegoats in the crisis. In The Emergency Zoo, Halahmy portrays how the innocent suffer, companion animals more so, and presents children’s perspective vis-à-vis their relationship with companion animals. This paper attempts to study how children display empathy towards their companion animals using the human-animal relationship framework of Margo De Mello in Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies.
Animals have been victims of war throughout history. They, too, bear the brunt of the violence caused by humans even now. Speciesism blinds humans to the pain and agony felt by animals.