Study Guide

to

Thurber's "The Owl Who Was God"

Do not read further in this study guide until you have read the piece a couple of times.  When you've done that, give some thought to the following questions.  Of course you'll find it useful to return to the text often.

(1)  What are some of the things that strike you as witty and humorous about this little story?

(2)  What familiar saying does Thurber suggest a new twist on when he comes to state a moral for his story?  What do you think is his point in doing so?

(3)  If we take into account the fact that Thurber published this little story at the beginning of the 1940's, what particular situations come to mind as ones that Thurber was probably expecting his original (American) readership to recognize the story as pointing to?

• Who does the owl stand for?
• How about the birds who deify the owl?
• What about the animals who are driven out?
• How about the animals who drive them out?
• What does the parade down the middle of the highway stand for?
• What does the truck stand for?

• Why is that a weird question?
• Suppose we were to rephrase it this way:  When we come across an owl in a piece of fiction that we recognize as a fable, does it always embody, and stand for, the same qualities?
• What traditional qualities associated with owls does Thurber expect his readers to bring into play in reading his little tale?  How does the story depend on the reader's doing this, for the particular effect Thurber arranges for the very end?  How would you describe this effect?
• The German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) once said, "When philosophy paints its gray in gray, then has an age grown old.... The Owl of Minerva takes flight only at the close of day." (Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom, the equivalent to Athena in Greek mythology.  What else would we need to know in order to be able to make sense out of Hegel's cryptic remark?)
• (Puzzled?  You might find your answer here!)
• Review the Haitian folktale "The Story of Owl"  (available at sites 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, 6.) Does the teller of this story assume his audience has the same folk conception of owls as Hegel does in his remark (and as Thurber plays off of in his fable for Americans)?

  Suggestions are welcome.  Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .

   Contents copyright © 2000 by Lyman A. Baker.

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