A critical analysis of Elspeth Davie's short story, "Sunday Class" with a Bibliography

Essay by nebulicityUniversity, Bachelor'sA, November 2003

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Downloaded 16 times

Elspeth Davie's short story, "Sunday Class" is one that juxtaposes a conventional Sunday school with hierarchy. The Sunday School teacher obviously lacks love for animals. Miss McRae is annoyed by the young boy's response to her question of what God wants them to be thankful for? The young boy replies with "dinosaurs", annoyed that all the other children have already blurted out all the good answers. Immediately after the young boys statement we see Miss McRae shift the fur about her neck.

According to the codes and conventions proposed by environmentalists and animal lovers one should not wear fur or any other type of material that was made from animals. They support animal rights and make sure that they are enforced and abided. Miss McRae is defying these codes as she shifts the fur about her neck. We can see from this very moment that she has no concern for animals.

Her gesture at the mentioning of an animal shows that she feels she is superior to them and doesn't support animal rights.

In society there is a notion that individuals with superior status wear a collar. Miss McRae's shifting of her fur collar shows that she has superior status in comparison to the children. It shows that she is the authoritative figure, thus having control of the students. The notion that the material of her collar is fur shows her stance of superiority to animals, thus illuminating her dull concern for animals.

Her statement subsequent to the boy's response further illustrates her apathy for animals. She replies, "To be grateful for" in an authoritative way thus warning the young

Williams 2

boy. Her tone suggests that she deemed dinosaurs are not worthy of being categorized as "things to be thankful for". The manner of her statement demands that the...