A philosophical vision about being: The Lives of Animals and the short story “The Glass Abattoir”, by Jm Coetzee

Abstract

This article analyzes “The glass abattoir”, one of the tales of Moral tales (COETZEE, no prelo b), understood as a sequence of The lives of animals (COETZEE, 1999a), both written by JM Coetzee. We aim to understand the author’s movement towards ethics in favor of the animals’ right to life, questioning the moral codes that justify meat consumption. Coetzee moves through philosophical discourse in both works, refuting the existence of human superiority over these animals. Both texts’ main character, Elizabeth Costello, is considered Coetzee’s alter ego. In the short stories, she assumes the author’s nonconformity regarding the way that we, omnivorous individuals, treat the animals we eat and establish an “ecological balance” when deciding which, how and when they die. We intend to show that, in “The glass abattoir”, the character aims to break up with speeches, and plans to make physically visible what happens inside the slaughterhouses.