Zoomorphism

Zoomorphism by definition is, Attribution of animal characteristics or qualities to a god. This means that sometimes a kind of god takes the form of an animal and has a higher power than all the other animals. If this is the case that means that the other animals recognize that this animal is special and does not want to bother it, and in a way looks up to it even if it is smaller. Pi gives an example of zoomorphism when he talks about a little brown Methuselah. "While other mice dropped in the terrarium disappeared within two days, this little brown Methuselah built itself a nest, stored the grains we gave it in various hideaways and scampered about in plain sight of the snakes. We were amazed." Pi later mentions that the mouse was bitten by a young viper; and then was eaten by an adult viper. This represents that the older snakes knew the status of the mouse, but the ignorant young viper was oblivious to it.

Pi gives more examples about zoomorphism, but the one that sticks out the most is how a dog sometimes acts as a mother for a lion cub. "Though the cubs grow to become larger than their caregiver, and far more dangerous, they never give their mother trouble and she never loses her placid behaviour or her sense of authority over her litter." This is just another form of zoomorphism and how there is a social ladder. The lion respects a dog even though it is not its own blood, but because it took care of him/her during its childhood it respects it as a mother. In humans we see that as well. Rarely do you see an adult treat his or her mother like dirt after they have realized all they have sacrificed and done for them. The example of the dog taking care of a lion and a mother raising her child run parallel to each other, and it shows that zoomorphism can be found in both animals and humans.

In the last paragraph of chapter thirty-two Pi talks about zoomorphism and what it might be. He mentions circus lions and their leaders being weakling human, but since they have taken care of them for so long, they have a certain respect for them and do not attack them. And then Pi talks about the adult viper eating the sacred mouse. He says the viper must have felt some sort of regret when he was eating the mouse, "in its undeveloped mind a twinge of regret". The regret he was feeling could have been his conscience and that might be what zoomorphism is. Your conscience and knowing what you are doing is wrong, and having