Inferno Reaction Paper

H.ATAKAN KESKIN

ENGLISH IV

12/2/2011

MS MORRELL

UTILIZATION OF ANIMAL USAGE IN INFERNO

Through out the whole thirty-four cantos, we have seen a good amount of animal usages utilizing for the sinners in the book of inferno. Before starting off to explain why he did that, we need to know the biggest difference between a human and an animal. Humans are also known as “intelligent animals”, and some of their biggest difference from animals is developing an argument, following the line of logic, drawing important conclusions that will lead them to an answer of a question and last but not least framing hypotheses. Besides these skills, we have some similarities with animals but these are the main skills that differentiates human from animal.

If you are a human that did not use the skills that was given to you from god which differed you from animal , you go to hell. What I mean by that is, when you commit a sin , you do not really think about doing the right thing and just follow the things that will satisfy you, and that's why Dante uses these similarities because the people in hell are no different than animals which is a really smart way to have a controversy in a book. He claims that these people have nothing different than animals. They didn't use the skills that differs them from animals and now they are punished because of that. I also think that the usage of animal similarities is a really good way to describe the sinners in hell because it shows the readers the difference between a sinner and a good person.

Also the personifications bring more professionalism and knowledge to the book . It sounds more interesting to the reader when the authors talks about the people in the second circle who did not work for “ Ben Comune” and just cared about their selves , and says “ They ate too much food, they just used their richness to their selves” instead of saying something like“They were eating like pigs and not sharing a piece” . Obviously the second one sounds more interesting and makes the reader think that the book is flowing. He even compares his three sins that he fears to be punished for the most. He compares being lustful to a she-wolf, being violent to lion and being fraud to leopard. In the beginning of the book these three creatures are in his path and they do not let him go to heaven so he needs to go through hell.

I think Dante uses the animal references to differ the sinners from good people and since they did not think about what they were doing when they committed a sin, they basically have no different skills than animals and that is why they are in hell. I really think it is a great idea to personify the sinners.