Wartime Instincts

“On the dirt floor, the blood of Christians and animals flowed together” (Isabel Allende, Inés of my Soul, 198).

In this part of the novel, local Indians had attacked the newly established settlement of Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura. When the Indians got close enough, they started to kill the domestic animals as well. In this battle, the blood from the animals and the humans literally “flowed together.”

This reminded me of a line from “Animal Farm,” by George Orwell. In this allegory, the animals revolted against the cruel human farm owner and established their own society. By the end of the story, the animal leaders had become as bad as the previous human ruler. The pig rulers invited the humans from the area, and the other animals made the significant and symbolic observation:

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” (George Orwell, Animal Farm).

I do not think it was coincidence that Orwell chose pigs to symbolize leaders in the Communist Party. One of the messages here was the way he saw these leaders. Similarly, I think Allende was trying to point out that the different groups in Santiago had become like unto animals. Indeed, Inés began to “[foam] at the mouth and [curse] like a harpy” (Isabel Allende, Inés of my Soul, 197). This description sounds like a crazed animal. 

In times of war, people can cease to see their enemies as people. They have to see them as objects in order to be able to kill them so mercilessly. In this case, the Indians were killing both animals and people, without seeming to discriminate between the two, and the Spanish explorers did the same in return. Going beyond this, I believe that seeing other people in this way changes the person himself or herself. As individuals on each side began to kill without mercy, something within them began to change. The blood of Christians and animals flowing together meant that those Christians had become like animals themselves. In war, sometimes people begin to see others as animals; this changed viewpoint changes something within them, until their own instincts have become like a ferocious wild animal.