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Essays on James Thurber´s "The Owl Who Was God"

The short story “The Owl Who Was God” by James Thurber is a fable about what blind trust can result in. In his fable Thurber demonstrates his message by drawing a scenery in a forest. The owl is in his case the character who is trusted in and the other creatures are the ones who trust the owl wholeheartedly.

The story starts at night. Two ground moles notice that the owl is able to see them in the darkness. Astonished they tell the other creatures that the owl is the wisest and greatest animal. The secretary bird decides to inspect the owl`s abilities by asking him several questions to prove his wisdom and testing his eyesight at night. The owl passes the test and the secretary bird declaims that the owl really is the greatest and wisest animal. The creatures are certain: The owl is most suitable to be their leader. But one fox is still not sure. He asks: “Can he see in the daytime, too?” The other animals do not understand his question. For them it`s clear that everybody is, of course, able to see at daytime. Nobody wants to look into that and they just laugh at the fox and force him out of their region and ask the owl to be their leader.

The next day the owl appears to assume his leadership. He cannot see a thing and bumps in everything though he moves very slowly. The animals do not understand that it is a sign that he cannot see and just follow him, also bumping into everything, declaiming that the owl was god.

The owl leads the creatures to a highway and starts up in the middle of it. The other animals recognize that there is a truck coming and from their experiences they know that they are in extreme danger. But when they tell the owl, he does not react at all. Instead of making their own decision and run, the creatures stay with the owl, still crying “He`s god”. Then the truck runs them over and most of them are killed. The owl, too.
The moral the author names is: “You can fool too many people too much of the time."

The analogy between the animals shown and the human world is a characteristic of a fable. The animals in this fable stand for a certain group of people who sadly represent the bigger part of mankind: People who rather give their blind trust without any reservation to anyone without having good reasons instead of taking responsibility on their own. The owl characterises those people who become leaders that way. In the case of the owl this leadership is kind of an accident, based on bad communication.

The owl most likely is aware that he cannot be a leader for the other creatures. Nevertheless he does not admit to his weakness, namely his debility to see in daylight. That is also something which is typical of men who see themselves facing something they cannot manage for they have a certain weakness which restrains them: They are ashamed to say so, because they see themselves under the pressure to keep up with everyone around them. Admitting their weakness would be like losing a competition, a competition which just exists in their minds. That`s the problem the owl has. The outstanding ability the owl has to see at night does not give him the self-confidence to stand by his weakness. The fact that the other creatures take the ability to see at daytime for granted makes it even worse for him, he is afraid of losing all respect they have for him if he tells the truth.

On the other hand the other animals also have a lack of self-confidence. Just because the owl has one ability they do not have they believe him to be better in general. They immediately assume the inferior position without  looking into it anymore. Even when one of them, the fox, asks a critical question they do not take it as an impulse to spend another thought on the situation. That way no communication arises and the lack of self-confidence and braveness to stand by their own weaknesses leads to their downfall.

If I had to come to my own moral I would probably say: The moral is that without self-reflected thinking and the ability to communicate with others -even if you are afraid of it- you will soon find yourself in complicated situations. The moral the author gives has a different point in it. The author puts his focus on the fooling. Of course, the animals are fooled here and the owl is fooling them, by not telling them the truth. But in my opinion fooling has something to do with purpose. I do not think the owl is fooling them on purpose. They all just kind of got in a bad situation and while the owl does not have the braveness to get out of it, the animals do not put enough thought in it to get out. So maybe the moral should be more differentiated:
If you don`t think about what you let others do to you, people can fool you without effort.
And maybe there should be a second moral, one for the owl:
If you realise you are getting into something that`s too big for you, have the braveness to say so- otherwise it will get even worse.

But when you see it from the author`s point of view,  the fable yet leads to another aspect. The history of mankind has shown that people tend to let euphoria take control over them instead of well-founded agreement on what they do. People too often followed persons who just seemed as if they were intelligent because they were charismatic. This blind trust inevitably led to their downfall. If you follow someone who is stupid it makes you stupid, too. You have to question the ideas of the ones you follow.

(Sep 2009, L.H., F.C., T.K.  11a)

The fable ''The Owl Who Was God'', written by James Thurber, was published in 1940 and deals with typical misunderstandings between creatures, which can lead to the aggravation of some issues.
An owl which is admired by the other animals because of her various abilities becomes their divine leader, although she is not able to protect them at any time.

In the beginning of the story two ground moles and a secretary bird meet her at night and are surprised to learn the owl can see them in that thick darkness and can also answer any questions they ask. After telling the other animals what happened, the creatures decide to select the owl as their leader, even though a red fox does not agree with it, because he does not believe in her qualities. Because of that critical question, the animals chase the fox and his friends out of the region.
From then onwards, they follow her the whole time and start to call her ''God''. Due to the fact that they trust her, they rely on her even on the highway at daytime, albeit they are not aware that she is not able to see during the daytime. In the end, the most of them, including the owl, are run over by a truck on a highway because of their credulity.

According to our opinion James Thurber wants to clarify whether it  is right to acknowledge somebody as a leader blindly and the circumstances that ultimately lead people to accept such decision. In this case the role of the leader is expressed by the owl, the leading character in this fable. She is such a smart animal because of her numerous skills (''[…] she could see in the dark and [because] she could answer any question.'', line 6/7) and thus the other animals want her to become their new leader (''they […] asked her to be their leader.'', line 19).

However, she proves to be very coward for the simple reason that she has not told the other animals that she is almost blind in the daytime, especially when the truck approaches ( ''[…] she could not see the truck.'', line 31 ). Still, she has not confessed that she is not as ''wise[est] and great[est]'' ( line 6 ) as everybody thinks, because she does not want to feel embarrassed or because she really enjoys her time as their leader and does not want to lose this position.
Most of the other animals, especially the two ground moles, the secretary bird, the dormouse, a Plymouth rock hen and a French poodle, are very trustful and almost credulous, because they believe everything that has been said (''Can he see in the daytime, too?'', asked a red fox. ''Yes,'' answered a dormouse and a French poodle.''). They all trust her, follow her and do the same things she does. When she ''bumped into things they began to bump into things, too'' ( line 25 ). So it is obvious that they are addicted to her ( '' He's God! '', line 23 ). The animals also do not want disbelievers among them, because they are scared that they cannot answer all of their questions (''[…] they set upon the red fox and his friends and drove them out of the region.'', line 17). They believe that they are only strong together and need someone to show them their way. Their behaviour shows clearly that they are afraid of making their own decisions and that they are not self-confident at all.
But a few animals realize that the owl is not the perfect animal of all already at the very beginning. The red fox, another intelligent animal, does not want to believe everything he is told about the owl, because it may not be true. So sometimes it is better to doubt, when you are not sure about things (''Can he see in the daytime, too?'' asked the red fox.  line 15/16), even if you know that someone will not like it (''All the other creatures laughed loudly at this silly question […]'', line 17).

We think James Thurber wants to show people in an ironic way what can happen when you always do what others tell you and never think about what is right or wrong. His story shall motivate readers to think about the sense of having a leader and about their own behavior in cases like these. In our opinion the red fox and his friends are the only ones, who react in an appropriate way, where upon  they get expelled from their group. They have had their own opinions and have had the courage to offer them to the others, while the other creatures just laugh at them and their thoughts. This shows their strength and self-confidence.
Finally it can be said that it is right and important to consult your friends sometimes, but in the end you have to make your own decisions. You cannot rely on somebody else your whole life, sometimes there is just you and nobody else and then you have to be strong, even if you are alone with your doubts.

(Sep 2009, J.W., A.B., M.S., J.B., 11a)

The fable “The Owl Who Was Good“ was written by James Thurber, an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. He was best known for his work for “The New Yorker Magazine“. The fable is about fatal simple-mindedness and a fitting moral: “You can fool too many of the people too much of the time“. As to be expected the characters are animals, in our case an owl and other inhabitants of the forest.