Prisoners of war (allegory)
Between Elizabeth and her son there appears an interesting conversation concerning zoos. She states that when the first zoos were opened the keepers had to protect the animals from the spectators, who in their turn considered the animals put into the cages with only one reason – to be insulted. In this way the animals in the zoos were, and continue, being treated like prisoners in a triumph, like prisoners of war. Prisoners of war were always treated as the winner wanted – they could be killed, their throats could be cut, their hearts could be torn out – and there never was a law against the prisoners of war.
Ape (symbol)
In the first lecture, The Philosophers and the Animals, Elizabeth Costello draws a parallel between herself and an ape. The image of an ape she uses from the Kafka’s short story “Report to an Academy”, in which Kafka represents a humanized ape who gives an outline of his life from an animal to a human. Elizabeth uses the metaphor in the contrary meaning – from human to animal. Thus the image of ape acquires symbolic meaning – it means that to become more human a person needs to get into the skin of an animal, metaphorically, and only then a person can change his own worldview. The ape symbolizes transformations within one’s heart.
Factories of death (symbol)
Elizabeth gives a vivid image of concentration camps created by the Nazi. She calls these camps “factories of death”. These “factories” becomes a symbol for inhumanity, cruelty and lack of any sympathy.
