Mary Kim

This project is a short story of an individual who used to work as a herder in a dairy farm.

In this story, the society has taken up on eating other humans, who are referred to as animals. I

decided to do the project as a story format because I wanted to get a perspective of the way we

treat and perceive animals by applying it to humans. When looking at how animals are treated

and how we interact with them, it might not seem like anything because they are just animals.

However, if one thinks about a human treating another human in the same way we treat animals,

it might be seen differently. Through this project, I hoped to gain a perspective of animal cruelty

and challenge myself to examine this point of view because it is a topic that I have never thought

about before.

The main character is not given any identity so that the readers can read the story from

their own perspective, enabling them to have the freedom of their own interpretation. For

example, when I read it, I personally perceive the main character being a white female and the

animals are Asian women. Others would possibly read the story with different identities in mind

for the characters. By keeping the characters identity ambiguous, I hope that the story would be

a more personal experience rather than just reading about something. The story could be a way

for us to understand our own understandings of our place within society and how we view others.

This self-understanding personally helped me to see how I view myself and others in respect to

myself and how oppression and privilege could tie in with that.

The story follows the thought process of the main character as the individuals senses

triggers specific thoughts and memories from his or her work experience in the farm. Therefore,

some sections might be vague or descriptive and the memories can seem random and

unchronological. The story is structured this way to demonstrate the idea of double-think of
pushing reality away. I wanted to demonstrate a perspective of how double-think is a common

part of our lives and the experiences may come up and we are unknowingly and constantly

suppressing it. An example of this in the story is the herders violent and oppressive thoughts

towards both animals and people.

The connection between the different forms of oppressions are presented through the two

story plots taking place. In the present time, which is written in italics, the main character is

struggling with taking care of his or her grandmother because the responsibility requires a lot of

the characters commitment. He or she finds it to be a burden and lets that frustration out by

being directly and indirectly abusive to the grandma. This is contrasted to Karen, who is

currently also required to stay at home often to take care of her new born child, but shows a

loving relationship with the baby. The second plot is the main characters struggle with his or

herself when working in the dairy farm. The character reflects on his or her transformation from

being an active to a passive worker. At the end, the sounds represent how the character is no

longer an individual but blends in and loses his or herself in the farm. These two plots are tied

together of the characters two sides of being the oppressed and the oppressor.

I did a lot of research on what happens in the dairy farm so that I would be able to

transmit the pain and cruelty that the animals face onto humans. For example, the shaved head

was supposed to be similar to the tail docking. The swollen breasts are supposed to be equivalent

to the cattle mastitis. I focus mainly on the dairy cattle mastitis because I did not know it was an

actual health problem for them. I remember being fascinated when I first saw the enormity of the

udders. It was interesting to find that there was not a lot of information on women mastitis

because they can be treated pretty easily so they tend to be pretty rare and only affects about 1-

3% of women. However, I found that mastitis affects about 30 -50% of dairy cows. The sources I
have found regarding cattle mastitis were not really helpful because none of them focused on the

welfare of the cow but more on the somatic cells. Therefore, a lot of my knowledge was based

on blogs and more extreme animal welfare sites that provided general knowledge for the public.

I had to look up the symptoms of both species and look at how those symptoms may be

similar or different for each. I also looked at a lot of images to see what they looked like. It was

interesting to see that I didnt know how a lot of these symptoms looked like even though I know

they are because we treat it quickly so not a lot of people have them. However, the symptoms are

more visible in cattle because they do not receive the proper treatment. By translating the

experiences of the animals onto humans, I was able to imagine and have empathy towards the

abuse they face because I was able to utilize memories and experiences of myself and others to

understand the swelling, the sweating, and the itching to some extent.

Since the main character is describing what he or she saw, I had to watch a lot of videos

on dairy farming so that I can be able to describe it based on what I perceived, rather than

rephrasing someone elses experience. I think this is what made the project a more personal

experience. I originally thought that the project would provide me an educational and intellectual

experience, but it provided me more of a personal development. It was a very personal

experience as I tried to figure out what to write about and how to articulate it in my writing.

Since I was describing what I saw, I felt that I was revealing a lot of how I see the world. It was

different for me to write a short story because I am used to writing my opinions and using facts

so that I can control the readers understanding. However, a lot of this projects content was

subjective and it made me uneasy knowing that what I describe is not how others perceive it. It

was personal because I was putting myself in that characters position and sharing how I

perceived the ethics of the dairy industry from my own experiences and thoughts.
 Throughout my couple years in college, I constantly heard that the personal is the

political. I dont think I really understood that phrase until working on this project. A lot of

these political issues, such as animal justice and human equality, are very personal issues that we

experience in our daily lives. I unintentionally tried to separate the personal and the political

by planning on having the short story be political by having it be fact oriented and informative to

readers. The story became more personal the more I wrote as the story started to focus more on

the characters deepest thoughts on a political issue. It was difficult to separate the characters

experience from the politics of the animal welfare. This project helped me to see that the

personal and experiences can be a powerful connection into the larger scaled issues.

Experiences provide a lens that allows us to create a discourse on these issues and to examine

how we affect society and how society affects us. That connection helps us to see these issues as

something that can be improved and changed for the better and to understand how to make those

differences.