Capture First Book in the Guardians of GA Hoole Series

Capture

In the first book of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, the young owl Soren is pushed out of the nest before he knows how to fly. Five anthropomorphic characteristics he and the other owls display in the first book will be recounted in this paper.

Propaganda and brainwashing: clearly the strategies used by the owls of St. Aegolius anthropomorphically mirror those used by human religious cults, fascists, and by communist POW (prisoner of war) camps during the Korean War, in WWII, and in other wars. A very human strategy in wartime -- albeit inhumane -- is to capture or kidnap innocent individuals and tell them, as the St. Aegolius owls told them, "It is here that you will find truth and purpose… When Truth is Found, Purpose is Revealed" (Lasky, 31). Basically the owls became slaves through the classic fascist brainwashing technique, with their captors telling those captured that "We discourage questions here as we feel they often distract from the Truth" (Lasky, 31). The Nazis discouraged questions and banned knowledge by burning books, and gave their prisoners a number. Soren got a number and he was ordered around like a POW camp: "Fall in, you two!" "Incorrect sleeping posture is also punishable, using our most severe methods" (Lasky, 39).

Breaking rules: it's very human, especially for a young person (in this case, owls), to have urges to break rules. The guards in a prison camp -- like the pit guardians -- are supposed to be strict and cold, but they do have moments where they identify with prisoners. Pit guardian Auntie "had been so nice" to Soren, and Unk had been nice to Gylfie. Auntie asked Soren to get some sleep, but "it's against the rules" Soren replied. Meanwhile Auntie said, "Sometimes rules are made to be broken" -- a very human thing to wish for (Lasky, 52).

Brotherly competition and angst: In human families there is always tension between the children, and brothers have been known to be cruel to each other before they are old enough to know better and to support each other -- and even when they grow into adults brothers can be very cruel to each other, indifferent to each other's feelings. While falling out of the nest onto the ground (only to be kidnapped by the owls of St. Aegolius) was terrible, to later realize it was your own brother owl that shoved you is a nightmare of huge consequences. The St. Aegolius owls were preaching that the "Truth" would reveal purpose. But for the protagonist in this story, "The only truth that Soren knew right now was a deep gizzard-chilling one: His brother had shoved him from the nest" (Lasky, 54). On page 60, Gylfie is trying to get Soren to "pull" himself together and stop fretting about how he misses his family. "What do you mean pull yourself together?" Soren asks. "Do you know what I just figured out about my brother?"

The ruse carried out by Soren and Gylfie: the two captured owls learned to pretend to be marching -- and practiced walking in the "dazed manner" of those that had been moon-blinked -- in order to resist being moon blinked. Yes they were found out, but in the meantime it is very human to devise a strategy to out-think your persecutors, to know in advance what their strategy will be and to conspiratorially plot your escape.