An Animal Place Michael Pollan Analysis

Close your eyes and picture what your life will be like five years from now. Most people can perceive two or three possible scenarios of their future. For each of us, the same question prompts different visions because we each have personal desires and are unique circumstances surrounding life. This is because the human mind works in such a way that allows us to complexly perceive the past, present, and future situations as compared to our own desires. If someone were able to tell an animal to picture their future, they wouldn’t be able to do so. Animal minds are not apt enough to have any complex perception of anything other than their current situation as it is. Though human brains are more advanced than those of animals, animals do possess some beneficial characteristics that humans …show more content…
When kids are little, they play games where they act like who they want to be like when they are older. Adults do the same thing during a bad day at work; they picture how great it would be to get that promotion they’ve been wanting. Throughout life, people look toward the future that fulfills their wants, and that’s what is used to motivate them in the choices and reasoning they use in every day life. To put it simply, the human mind works complexly. In Michael Pollan’s article “An Animals Place,” he states that the “qualitative difference [between humans and animals] is largely the result of our possession of language and, by virtue of language, an ability to have thoughts about thoughts and to imagine alternatives to our current reality.” Animals don’t possess the ability to picture life in any other way than the way it is at the time. For example, pigs roll around in mud to regulate their body temperature, not because it drives them toward something they want for the future. Meanwhile, humans are able to perceive alternatives to their past, current reality, and possibilities for their future, meaning that mentally, humans are more