Capture First Book in the Guardians of GA Hoole Series Essay

Capture

In the first book of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, the young owl Soren is pushed out of the nest before he knows how to fly. Five anthropomorphic characteristics he and the other owls display in the first book will be recounted in this paper.

Propaganda and brainwashing: clearly the strategies used by the owls of St. Aegolius anthropomorphically mirror those used by human religious cults, fascists, and by communist POW (prisoner of war) camps during the Korean War, in WWII, and in other wars. A very human strategy in wartime -- albeit inhumane -- is to capture or kidnap innocent individuals and tell them, as the St. Aegolius owls told them, "It is here that you will find truth and purpose… When Truth is Found, Purpose is Revealed" (Lasky, 31). Basically the owls became slaves through the classic fascist brainwashing technique, with their captors telling those captured that "We discourage questions here as we feel they often distract from the Truth" (Lasky, 31). The Nazis discouraged questions and banned knowledge by burning books, and gave their prisoners a number. Soren got a number and he was ordered around like a POW camp: "Fall in, you two!" "Incorrect sleeping posture is also punishable, using our most severe methods" (Lasky, 39).

Breaking rules: it's very human, especially for a young person (in this case, owls), to have urges to break rules.The guards in a prison camp -- like the pit guardians -- are supposed to be strict and cold, but they do have moments where they identify with prisoners. Pit guardian Auntie "had been so nice" to Soren, and Unk had been nice to Gylfie. Auntie asked Soren to get some sleep, but "it's against the rules" Soren replied. Meanwhile Auntie said, "Sometimes rules are made to be broken" -- a very human thing to wish for (Lasky, 52).

Brotherly competition and angst: In human families there is always tension between the children, and brothers have been known to be cruel to each other before they are old enough to know better and to support each other -- and even when they grow into adults brothers can be very cruel to each other, indifferent to each other's….....