A Mirror Has Two Faces: Connecting with Our Animal Nature in
             I remember watching nature shows on television and
             seeing natural predation. There on the screen lions stalk,
             chase, kill, and eat their prey. A true vision of animal
             nature. Humans are also animals, therefore, possessing
             animal nature. This animal nature can be witnessed every
             fall as thousands of hunters across the United States forge
             into the woods to stalk, kill, and eat their prey. Most
             hunters even display the heads of their prey in their living
             rooms as a testament to their animal nature.
             Ed Gentry also touches his animal nature in James
             Dickey's novel Deliverance. One weekend, Ed along with
             three friends, Bobby, Lewis, and Drew decides to canoe down
             the Cahulawassee river not knowing what trials laid ahead.
             Drew is killed, Bobby sodomized, Lewis disabled, and Ed
             severely wounded. Ed stalks and kills a man in order to
             survive; and through Ed's need to survive in the wilderness,
             he touches the animal nature within him.
             Ed goes through life aimlessly. Eventhough he has a
             wife, a boy, and his own business, Ed has no direction, no
             purpose. Life is boring. Ed's only break from normal life
             is the occasional excursions that he takes with his good
             friend Lewis. The first inclination of what Ed needs to be
             complete is while laying out a photo shoot for a Kitt'n
             Britches ad. As Ed surveys the model, he looks into her eye
             There was a peculiar spot, a kind of tan slice, in
             her left eye, and it hit me with, I knew right
             away, strong powers; it was not only recallable,
             but would come back of itself....and the sight of
             that went through me, a deep and complex male
             thrill, as if something had touched me in the
             Was this part of Ed's animal nature showing through? The
             Ed, Lewis, Drew, and Bobby leave for the river. Lewis
             and Ed in one car, and Bobby and Dre
             ...