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what is the theme of the story my life as a bat

by Prof. Natalie Heller MD Published 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago

In the story "My Life as a Bat" the theme of the story is presented as "Bats are viewed as less superior beings of life." In lines 73-75 Atwood states "I screamed at these filmic moments, but not with fear; rather with outraged laughter, at the insult to bats." The lines reference to humans viewing bats in vampire ...

Full Answer

What is the primary subject of the story The bats?

The story's primary subject is the atypical perspective that humans, not bats, are frightening, a “ [wry] revising [of] cultural myths. The first section introduces the subject of the narrator’s previous life as a bat and asserts the claim that disbelief in reincarnation is proof of not being “a serious person.”

What is the genre of my life as a bat?

“ My Life as a Bat ” is a 1,433 word short story first appearing in a collection of 27 short stories and prose poems by Canadian author Margaret Atwood titled Good Bones, published in 1992. The story is written in 1st Person point of view from the perspective of an unnamed, ungendered narrator who claims to have lived...

How does the narrator describe the life of a bat?

In the fifth and final section, the narrator describes the life of a bat as natural and sensuously beautiful and wonders if their life as a human is an interlude.

What is my life as a bat by Margaret Atwood?

(August 2017) “My Life as a Bat” is a 1,433 word short story first appearing in a collection of 27 short stories and prose poems by Canadian author Margaret Atwood titled Good Bones, published in 1992.

What is the conflict in my life as a bat?

The implied conflict throughout the story is between... the narrator and the reader. those who believe in reincarnation and those who don't. what the bat thinks and what the bat feels.

Why does the narrator say that reincarnation as an animal is a reward?

Why does the narrator say that "reincarnation as an animal . . . is a reward" (line 16)? It helps a person develop compassion for others. is concerned about the strong rays of the sun.

What is the structure in the story my life as a bat?

In this story, Atwood dispenses with traditional narrative structure. Instead, she arranges events, conflits, and reflections using an informative essay format, with numbered heads. Readers must piece together the narravtive to determine the order and significance of events.

What do bats usually do in the interlude between dawn and dusk my life as a bat?

Bats are the most active at night between the hours of dusk to dawn. As night approaches, bats begin to increase their activity. They will start flying around their cave and then leave in search of food and water. Bats will typically feed for about an hour or two, rest for a bit, then feed again before daybreak.

What is one of the reasons that the narrator seems to prefer life as a bat more than life as a human?

What is one of the reasons that the narrator seems to prefer life as a bat more than life as a human? The narrator prefers brighter times of day.Apr 9, 2020

What are some of the main contrasts the narrator makes between humans and bats in my life as a bat?

3@ the author contrasts the beauty of bats by describing bat's babies as "rounded and soft as furred plums" with the hideousness of humans by describing them as "evil," "single white unseeing eye," and "stinks of half-digested meat."

Which statement best reflects the narrator's attitude toward the relationship between bats and people my life as a bat?

Which statement best reflects the narrator's attitude toward the relationship between bats and people? People fear bats, yet humans are the real monsters. People and bats should appreciate each other more.

What are some of the subtleties of the life inside a bat colony?

The subtleties of life inside a bat colony can be found in a short piece by Margaret Atwood, titled My Life Inside A Bat Colony. The main subtlety mentioned in the piece is a bat's preference for "the subtleties of dawn and dusk", as opposed to the bright sun of the main part of the day.

How are most novels structured?

Three Act Structure. Following the old adage that “every story has a beginning, middle, and end,” this popular structure splits a story's components into three distinct acts: Setup, Confrontation, and Resolution. In many ways, the three-act structure reworks The Hero's Journey, with slightly less exciting labels.Apr 14, 2021

What do bats eat?

flying insects
Bats are the most significant predators of night-flying insects. There are at least 40 different kinds of bats in the U.S. that eat nothing but insects. A single little brown bat, which has a body no bigger than an adult human's thumb, can eat 4 to 8 grams (the weight of about a grape or two) of insects each night.

Where do bats live?

In general, bats seek out a variety of daytime retreats such as caves, rock crevices, old buildings, bridges, mines, and trees. Different species require different roost sites. Some species, such as the Mexican free-tailed and gray bats live in large colonies in caves.

How do bats behave?

Bats are nocturnal (active at night), leaving daytime roosts at dusk. Upon leaving their roost, bat fly to a stream, pond, or lake where they dip their lower jaw into the water while still in flight and take a drink. After drinking bats forage for insects.

What does the narrator say about bats?

They then describe praying in a way that echoes the Lord's Prayer except that their goddess is imagined to look like a bat and the evil from which these bats are begging deliverance is human beings.

What is the first section of the narrator's previous life as a bat?

The first section introduces the subject of the narrator’s previous life as a bat and asserts the claim that disbelief in reincarnation is proof of not being “a serious person.”. For evidence, the narrator creates a syllogism listing as proposition 1 that “a great many people believe in” past lives ...

What are the two nightmares in the book "The Bat"?

The second section describes two “recurring nightmares” experienced by the narrator, each from the perspective of a bat. In one the bat is trying to escape a house wherein a man is attempting to hit it with a tennis racket while a “woman is shrieking, ‘My hair! My hair!’” The bat describes the man as a “monster” and is pessimistic regarding its chances of escaping with his life. In the second nightmare, the bat drinks juicy desert flower nectar before returning to its cave to escape the dehydrating sun's rise. However, when it arrives at the cave's entrance, the helpless bat finds the entrance “sealed over” by humans. The narrator asks who “‘said that light was life and darkness nothing?” serving to “puncture absolutist religious and cultural mythologies.”

What does a bat drink in the second nightmare?

In the second nightmare, the bat drinks juicy desert flower nectar before returning to its cave to escape the dehydrating sun's rise. However, when it arrives at the cave's entrance, the helpless bat finds the entrance “sealed over” by humans.

How many bats were used in the experiment?

A test run of this theory was carried out in the southwestern United States” and altogether approximately 6,000 bats were used for experimentation.

What does the narrator say about reincarnation?

The narrator then draws the audience's attention to the idea that reincarnation as “vultures, spiders, or rodents” would be a reward rather than a punishment, augmenting the theme of human inferiority by suggesting that the reverse of anthropocentrism may be true.

What do bats eat?

They feed on blood, some even eat fruits and fish. Bats are in severe decline. Bats use sounds to search for food. Bats are active at night. They feed on insects, while others eat fruit, fish, or blood. Bats have a loss of habitats. They locate insects by emitting inaudible high-pitched sounds.

How do bats locate insects?

They locate insects by emitting inaudible high-pitched sounds. In a short time the sun will rise and she will be shriveled to a few small bones. Bats are used as weapons. other bats will chirp and rustle and doze until night unfurls again and makes the hot sky tender for us.

What does Margaret Atwood believe about reincarnation?

Atwood believes in reincarnation. She believes that in her past life she was a bat. She thinks being a bat is more of a reward than a punishment. Bats can kill without feeling guilt, but they don't do it out of hate. Where as humans will kill because they hate someone but they sometimes will feel guilt or remorse after.

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