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SOURCE: "Reality and Illusion in Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn," in Critique, Vol. XIX, No. 2, 1977, pp. 93-104.
In the following essay, Norford discusses the symbolism of the characters in The Last Unicorn.
A cheeky and didactic squirrel in Peter S. Beagle's A Fine and Private Place (1960) tells the cynical raven that "there is poetry in the meanest of lives, and if we leave it unsought we leave ourselves unrealized. A life without food, without shelter, without love, a life lived in the rain—this is nothing beside a life without poetry." He is so preachy that one sympathizes with the weary raven: "If I was a hawk, I'd eat you in two bites." Beagle is much more subtle and complex in The Last Unicorn (1968), but the theme is the same: "the main message of the allegory is that there is magic in being human." The symbol of the...
This section contains 5,131 words (approx. 18 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |