October 2023 Prompt: Animals Tell The Story

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Most of the time, the stories we read are written, as it seems, by people (humans), and they include animals as part of the story, or story line. I was reading a book just recently, in which a cat is a main character and just now, I wondered, how would this story have been written, or what would the story line be, if it was written by the cat?

How would the cat start the story; would there be a perceived need on the cats part to explain that they are a cat and this is their viewpoint of what is going on? Or would they just start up the story and, sooner or later, the reader would realize that this story is being told ... by the cat.

What book have you read where the story involves some kind of animal, or animals, and is written by the human's point of view -- and yet you might wonder how the story would be different if the animal was telling it? (Think of that famous story which was told from the horse's point of view when it was first written, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. You'd be doing the same thing about a book which is told from a human's point of view, yet giving us an alternative version, as seen by the animal.)

What is the book, who is the author, what is the story line (as told by the human) and how would it change if told by one of the principal animals in the book? Who is the animal, what is their name, and why are they telling the story? What is their impression of the people in the story?

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