An animal in the existential crisis of man

Abstract

In this article a series of books about Bob the cat and his interaction with the author are analyzed. His story allows the reader to understand homeless people and drug addicts who are outside the society in which the majority of the population seeks to avoid them. The author says that they also may have a chance for another future, but with faith and support in them. So James tells his life story, in which he has support from the Bob. It is the cat that appears as a thing for rescuing James from existential emptiness, loneliness, and drug addiction. The animal becomes the point of intersection between Bowen and ordinary people. In addition, Bob is a kind of marker of human manifestation in man and helps ordinary passers-by to notice it in James. Thanks to the cat, people’s attitude towards James is changing, because he is undergoing transformations. This is because James, before meeting Bob, takes life harshly, cruelly, and hopelessly, and then he understands the world differently. The animal performs those functions that belong to humans, one of which - teaches man to be human. The non-human is a comrade who understands and supports. Man starts to change for the better and strives for these changes. An animal enables a person to change and start life anew, to think about the common future of man and animal. Thus, James Bowen outlines a new paradigm of human-animal relations and defines the peculiarity of this interaction.