Blue in the Wake of Black

"Ain't these tears in these eyes tellin' you?"

The essay "Am I Blue?" opens up this argument that we have, "forgotten that human animals and non human animals can communicate quite well; if we are brought up around animals as children we take this for granted. By the time we are adults we no longer remember. However, animals have not changed. They are in fact completed creations... who are not likely  to change; it is their nature to express themselves." Since I grew up around animals my entire life I would find this to be true. Even as a child, I forgot about the bond that is created between an owner and their pet and the importance to keep strengthening that bond through communication whether it be with words or actions. I believe we take for granted the pureness of an animal when we own them. Their actions and reactions to their surrounding world is their only truth. They are not persuaded by the media as we are.

In "Am I Blue?" the story is told from a human perspective. They watch Blue go from loneliness and boredom to pure bliss with another horse. Shortly after their time together, the other horse conceived and is taken away by their owner because the purpose was fulfilled. The author then relates the look in Blue's eyes after the other horse is taken away as one that, "if I had been born into slavery, and my partner had been sold or killed, my eyes would have looked like that." The emotion and soul of an animal is not different from our own. This is a reminder to all humans that, "everything you do to us [animals] will happen to you; we are your teachers, as you are ours. We are one lesson." I was personal witness to this when my dog Rockit past away while my other dog Ladybug stayed alive. The sadness that lay over her spirit was heart wrenching to watch and I remember it feeling so real. As if I were watching my grandma mourn the loss of my grandpa, this was her only reality. We forget that animals mourn, love, play, and communicate with everyone they may come into contact with. And I believe this was Alice's Walker's point: to remind us that we are all beings of emotion.