Essay on We The Animals

Society and the Individual
Justin Torres’ book We The Animals merges love and violence by integrating both human and animalistic qualities within its characters. The plot deals with homophobia in the society and its role in effectively breaking up a family that functions like one unit throughout the earlier chapters in the book. Torres’ title incorporates the “We”, which represents the closeness and familial bond that the family members feel towards each other. However, the unintentional coming out of the narrator of the story tears him away from his family and isolates him. Moreover, the homophobia in the society introduces conflict within the family and leads the narrator to lose his identity and become modified into an individual that society approves of. He holds society responsible for the disintegration of this family. The story is told by a narrator whose name we never find out. Torres does this in order to emotionally detach the readers from the character and instead, direct their focus towards the larger message that the story conveys. Torres uses narrative and structure in the chapter, The Night I am Made, in order to emphasize the conflict and isolation felt by the narrator because of society’s expectations of him.
The chapter, The Night I am Made, is integral to the plot of the book because it deals with the actual problem in the narrator’s life. Until this point, the readers are given the sense that the family loves each other and will go to the ends of the Earth for each other. By the end of the chapter, the family is torn apart, leaving the readers to blame society for the way it influences relationships. Torres starts the chapter talking about the boys growing up. He uses “They” in this chapter, as opposed to the “We” that was used in the previous chapters. This change is pronoun use signals the beginning of the isolation felt by the narrator. The narrator goes on to describe his brothers and how degenerate they have and will become. He is