A theme within the book is that of predator and prey. Find a passage from Thursday's reading that relates to predator and prey and analyze it. Who is the predator (animal or human)? Who is the prey (animal or human)? How are they navigating this relationship? Is the entrance of the predator considered a positive or negative entrance?
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I feel the theme of predator and prey was emphasized much throughout the first chapter with the story of Deanna. I feel after the first encounter with Eddie Bondo, she became vulnerable and open herself up too much. She couldnt stop thinking about him and it made it easier for him to get what he wanted, which was her. She is the prey because at the beginning she was satisfied with being alone and was heartbroken from her previous hudsband. Eddie bondo is the predator because he came to the forrest the second time just to find her. The first time he was hunting coyotes and unexpectedly ran into her. He was intrigued by her and set out to have her heart. This was a good example of predator and prey.
The book deals a lot with predator and prey, of who is hunting who. They bring up the shooting of the last wolf fairly quickly and how coyotes are now moving n to take over the land witch the wolves once inhabited. In reality wolfs could easily kill people but they don’t it’s not worth the energy. People killed wolfs because of stories like little red riding hood. Man has a need to overpower what he does not understand we see it happen when Eddie preys on Deanna. But what really got me was the talk of wolves and coyotes on page 43. Both wolves and coyotes will occasionally kill life sock it is the way of life. I grew up around coyotes and life sock and never once did a coyote kill a sheep they sometimes got chickens but who really cares everything gets chickens eagles, foxes raccoons. I just don’t get why people have the need to kill them. This summer over 25 I had to extract bullets from over 20 coyotes that had been shot. If human is the predator then we are a sucky one try dealing with an angry coyote with nothing but gloves and then ask who would win a one on who fight without guns. But we found a way to be hunters. As Lusa puts it, “ You and everyone else in the county. I know. If Herb didn’t get them, someone else will.” (prodigal summer p. 43). Wolfs are gone and coyotes are having trouble. We are there hunter now, and they are our prey, even if we really do need them to balance out the ecosystem.
I chose to analyze the passage on page 56: “ She took a bite and stuffed the rest into her jacket pocket … he could have followed her. “
This illustrates the concepts of predator and prey by identifying the woman’s ex-husband as they “predator.” In the passage, she acts as if she is “prey” when she takes a bite of her food and then places the rest in her pocket, noting that she is exhibiting cautiousness and insecurity. She also noted that she stayed away from the den for a long time, even though it was home. Like prey, she was avoiding her predator and was unwilling and frightened to encounter him. It seems that her rationale was that if she didn’t appear within the first two weeks, her predator would conclude that she wasn’t coming back and would leave. However, since the predator was stationary, she knew as prey that even if she did go back, it would encourage her predator to hunt her. If her ex-husband were to appear, I would assume she would run and that this would be a negative entrance. It seems that she is avoiding him, even as she reminisces about him. Like predator and prey and the fight or flight response, it is unlikely that she would “fight” him unless completely cornered. It is clear in the passage that she took preparations to avoid him, not to encounter him. All in all I think that this section is a pretty good example of predator/prey psychology.
“If they’re (carnivores) good, then their prey is good, and its food is good. If not, then something’s missing from the (food) chain. (Kingsolver, 10-11).
This quote characterizes the importance of predators in an environment. In the Zebulon farming communities, coyotes, a prevalent predator of livestock in the surrounding wilderness are shot and killed if seen, nearly to the point of eradicating them completely from the area. It’s ironic how predators in nature are the most sought-after prey of humans. When humans begin to tame wilderness, or live near it, the first thing to go is the predators, because they pose the greatest risk to us, the new big dogs on top of the food chain. The difference between us and these predators is that we do not fit in with nature’s balance; we are too cunning to be negatively affected by traditional food shortages, disease and many other population controls that affect predators such as bears, foxes, wolves and coyotes. In a sense, both carnivore and human prey on and are prey in regard to each other, though the carnivore is usually the one who suffers the greatest losses.
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