Anthropomorphism and Animal Point of View in Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin
“‘Children, I dreamed a dream before you were born, and I see now what it meant. This is not a good place to grow up in, and you have wings to fly from it,’” Mrs Jane Tabby tells her children in the first book of Ursula K. Le Guin’s middle-grade children’s series, Catwings. Published in 1988 by Scholastic, Catwings is a tale of four kitten siblings—Thelma, Roger, James, and Harriet—who happen to be born with wings and must leave the dangerous city and venture into the country. The kittens face numerous challenges, from learning to fly and being on their own for the first time to territorial owls and the dangers of the wild. And while cats with wings are a surprising twist to children’s literature, Le Guin takes it one step further by utilising anthropomorphic characters. Using animals to convey the novel’s coming of age nature and anthropomorphic method of storytelling provides an outlet for absorbing the broad theme of growing up, which this analysis will be examining.
According to Children’s Literature, an Edinburgh Critical Guide, anthropomorphism is defined as the “attribution of human attributes or personality to non-human things,” most frequently in animals (Grenby). Regarded as a “staple of children’s literature since the eighteenth century,” anthropomorphism thinly veils aspects of humanity through character and, in the case of Catwings, the lens of an animal point of view through the kittens. Thelma, Roger, James, and Harriet all demonstrate quintessential aspects of humanity: they weep as their mother bids them away from the city slums, fight with their neighbours, and care for a sick sibling. But telling the story through an anthropomorphic point of view allows for distance between the reader and fiction. Young readers, especially, will have an easier time distinguishing fiction from reality because the characters in the story are animals rather than children like themselves. For example, instead of a child character experiencing the previously mentioned human aspects of the story, there is a distinctly anthropomorphic twist: the kitten’s mother, Mrs Jane Tabby, only bids the kittens fly away from the city after being chased by a dog, the tension the kittens experience with wilderness neighbours, most notably represented through the Owl, and they must look after their brother James, who is so ill he cannot fly and therefore cannot hunt. By using anthropomorphic characters, Le Guin successfully navigates humanity and all its complexities through the gaze of animals and transforms it into a tale with the overarching theme of growing up.
Anthropomorphism is not only to be utilised through characters and point of view but the theme as well. Growing up is a prevalent theme in Catwings and is most prominently displayed through the kitten’s wings. The wings symbolise the kittens’ growth through the novel as they must, for example, “fly away from [the] neighbourhood” and “is not a good place to grow up in, and [they] have wings to fly from it” (Le Guin 11-15). Learning to fly is a huge milestone in any bird’s life—it garners independence—but for winged cats, it means they must leave the city and their mother behind to pursue a safer existence. The concrete concept of an animal learning to fly can also be compared to a child experiencing adolescence—the child is starting to be more independent and self-reliant. The same can be said for the kittens: once they learn to fly, they leave the environment they’ve been born into and learn to sustain themselves. This use of anthropomorphic characters in Catwings acts as a metaphor that crosses into the human threshold and conveys the novel’s theme of growing up.
Though Kirkus Reviews referred to Catwings as “a charming, if insubstantial story,” the novel is a poignant look at adolescence and coming of age through the distanced scope of anthropomorphic characters. This interdisciplinary approach of blending human and animal characteristics compartmentalises the complexities of growing up into digestible and enjoyable portions for young readers. Catwings supplies empathy to an otherwise normalised and generalised topic, such as growing up, and reimagines them with a form of kindness that can only be found in middle-grade fiction. Using anthropomorphic characters in children’s literature is a valuable tool to convey themes and morals to audiences—and is one that Le Guin wields with precision.
Happy Reading!
Works Cited:
Grenby, M. O. Children's Literature. Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
K., Le Guin Ursula, and S. D. Schindler. Catwings: A Catwings Tale. Orchard Books, an
Imprint of Scholastic Inc., 1988.
Schindler, S.D. “Catwings.” Kirkus Reviews, Orchard/Watts, 1 Sept. 1988,
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sd-schindler/catwings/.