*To a child, there is no clear line separating objects from living things; and whatever has life has life very
much like our own. If we do not understand what rocks and trees and animals have to tell us, the reason is that
we are not sufficiently attuned to them. To the child trying to understand the world, it seems reasonable to expect
answers from those objects which arouse his curiosity. And since the child is self-centered, he expects the animals
to talk about things which are really significant to him, as animals do in fairly tales, and as the child himself
talks to his real or toy animals. A child is convinced that the animal understands and feels with him, even though
it does not show it openly. *Since animals roam freely and widely in the world, how natural that in fairy tales these animals are able to guide the hero in his search which takes him into distant places. Since all that moves is alive, the child can believe that the wind can talk and carry the hero to where he needs to go. In animistic thinking, not only animals feel and think as we do, but even stones are alive; so to be turned into stone simply means that the being has to remain silent and unmoving for a time. By the same reasoning, it is entirely believable when previously silent objects begin to talk, give advice, and join the hero on his wanderings. And since everything is inhabited by a spirit similar to all other spirits (namely, that of the child who has projected his spirit into all these things), because of this inherent sameness it is believable that man can change into animal, or the other way around. Since there is no sharp line drawn between living and deal things, the latter, too, can come to life. *When, like the great philosophers, children are searching for the solutions to the first and last questions--"Who am I? How ought I to deal with life's problems? What must I become?"--they do so on the basis of their animistic thinking. But since the child is so uncertain of what his existence consists, first and foremost comes the question "Who am I?" |