Jessica Draut - Narnia Post #2

There is a certain distinction in the Chronicles of Narnia between the dumb beasts and the Narnian beasts. The defining characteristic between the two is oddly enough one's ability to speak, or rather to communicate in the human language. In Prince Caspian, it is alluded to that some of the Narnian beasts have devolved back into dumb beasts. One of the first things mentioned to leave them is their ability to speak, even the trees are silent. 

This is so different from what I would base such a distinction on. At the beginning of this class we discussed what separated humans from animals as far as intellectual thought was concerned and concluded that while animals may have memory - humans actually have the ability to recollect that memory and to put order to it. Last semester I took an introduction to linguistics course. Similarly we discussed the distinction between man and animal, and reached the same conclusion, though in different terms. My teacher concluded that humans had the ability to discuss events in the past, present and future - recollecting memories and discussing things that had not yet happened yet, in addition to any number of abstract concepts. Animals on the other hand could only communicate whatever they were seeing or experiencing in the moment. She went on to explain why the ability to speak in and of itself is not grounds for such a great and defining distinction between man and animal. This is primarily because some animals, though certainly not all, have the ability and do learn human speech. This is exhibited through certain birds and primates. Admittedly, even the more talented of these creatures can only speak at the level of a toddler, but the point is that they can and it ceases to be a distinction.