Animals

Animals in Kudos symbolize unthinking, uncritical states of being. They stand in contrast to humans, who are often engaged in creating meaning out of experience, a mental capacity that defines humanity and which animals significantly lack. But, interestingly, humans are often compared to animals by means of a simile: the Italian countess Linda discusses is “like a lizard” in her state of remote, emotional reserve; the newspaper reporter and her husband are “like sheep” in their complacent marriage (49, 77). Animals are often used as a way of describing and characterizing essential qualities of human nature; animal comparisons of this sort are revelatory of human characteristics precisely due to animals’ inability to feign emotion or construct a story. Unlike humans, they are what they are, and they symbolize the dictates of nature, as opposed to humans’ shared ability to construct a story and explanation for events.

The Water Tower Hotel