Animals in Fiction by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

 I have a soft spot for animals in fiction. I was a huge fan of Timmy in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. I always thought he was the most intelligent of the lot but then I’m a dog owner so am probably biased.

The childhood book that meant to a lot to me was Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty. I found out much later it was written to encourage sympathy and kindness towards horses (though I hope it did also encourage people to develop those traits for other creatures too).

I was moved to tears by the sacrifice scene of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. The film adaptation was pretty good too.

I have occasionally written from an animal’s viewpoint in my flash fiction. One story was told from the viewpoint of a mother dragon and was fun to write. But I generally focus on writing human/humanoid characters, despite my having loved animals portrayed in fiction for so long.

Animals can, of course, be symbolic as Aslan is, but I suppose one reason I don’t write animal characters often is with a human/humanoid character, I can get them to think/do what I’d like them to think/do. I know what humans are capable of, what we can think and so on. I can extend that out for humanoid creations.

With animals, it has to be something that would come from natural behaviour patterns (which is true even for fantasy creatures. My mother dragon character acted as any mother would do to defend her young, which is why the story works).

 I have to know my character’s major trait before I write their story up as so many things can come from that to trigger further ideas. Courage, for example, can lead to recklessness. Also courage can fail someone so there are two immediate possibilities from the one trait. But for animals? I must ask myself what would reasonably tie in with what we know about how our natural world works.

Yet an animal, sympathetically portrayed, can add so much to a story. The Famous Four doesn’t have quite the same ring, does it? And then there’s Sherlock Holmes. One of the classic stories is The Hound of the Baskervilles (and not forgetting the curious incident of the dog in the night-time).

Animals can add atmosphere to a story simply by the way they’re referred to - The Spaniel of the Baskervilles lacks “oomph” whereas “hound” adds to the terror element. A hound could be almost anything that hunts (and definitely not a spaniel . I picture fluffy cocker spaniels, not something potentially terrifying!).

 Are there any animal stories you would recommend? I watched Born Free years ago and must confess to not having read or seen War Horse, though I like the sound of it. Have you written stories with animals in them? What was their purpose in your stories?