Gorillas: Anthropomorphized In Pop Culture

Gorillas are animals that are often anthropomorphized in pop culture and literature. Gorillas are known to be mighty animals who are strong willed and who stick together. These animals are family oriented and have human-like characteristics. In pop culture, there are many examples of these Gorillas like the very successful movies; Mighty Joe Young, King Kong, and George of the Jungle. In these movies and in many others like them, Gorillas are known to be mighty, strong, and overprotective. Humans portray Gorillas this way because when they analyze and study them in their natural habitat this is what they perceive the Gorillas to be. For the most part Gorillas are the same as what you see in movies as they are in real life. Gorillas are perceived …show more content…
She raises Tarzan just like she would any Gorilla child. Kala teaches Tarzan how to walk, talk, and even communicate like a Gorilla. This is a good example of adoption in the human world anthropomorphized for this film. When something happens to the biological parents of a child often times someone else becomes the primary care taker of that child. Sometimes the care taker is someone that the child does not even know, this is why this part of the movie has such significance. When a human child is adopted by other human beings they pick up the habits of their adopted parents just like Tarzan did. The movie also has the main character, Tarzan, taking on animal like traits. As stated previously, Tarzan swings from vines, walks like a Gorilla, and communicates like a Gorilla. So not only are the animals in this film acting like humans, but the humans are acting like the animals …show more content…
This raises the question are Gorillas really being anthropomorphized or are they actually being themselves. Humans and Gorillas come from the same family, look alike, and act a like, so is it too farfetched to say that they could possibly share the same emotions as well. This past summer 2016 there was an incident at a zoo in Cincinnati were a young boy fail into a Gorilla exhibit. Just like in most pop culture films and books the Gorilla was not violent towards the child. According to CNN, the Gorilla protected him and kept him out of harm’s way. This shows that Gorillas do in fact have human emotions. The Gorillas was showing fear for the little boy and therefore protecting him because, it did not want anything to happen to him. The only harm shown in the multiple videos of the incident was the Gorilla dragging the child around in the water. Gorillas do not know that there is a need to be gentle and careful when handling a child so, he treated him like he would have any other Gorilla. Gorillas are much like humans in this way. When a human gets a pet dog or cat they treat them like they would a child. They are very gentle with them and they cuddle and rub on them. So, when the Gorilla got the little boy he treated him like a baby Gorilla. The Gorilla was ultimately killed because of fear for the