Buffalo and boys, two seemingly unlike things. In Bless the Beasts and Children, by Glendon Swarthout, parallels between the boys and the buffalo are shown all throughout the book. The buffalo represent the boys, as they go through similar struggles and situations. The buffalo are unwanted, a nuisance, the boys are "dings," nobody wants to accept them. The boys are sent to summer camp against their will, while the buffalo are held captive against their will. In the end, both the boys and buffalo gain freedom.
The first parallel shown between the boys and the buffalo is how they are both "dings." Society views them as worthless, and "dings," which is basically nothing, or just simply pointless. The boys are shown as dings when the book says, "...the dandiest collection of dings ever to be inflicted upon Box Canyon Boys Camp."(61) This tells how the boys were dings, not accepted, the buffalo were also not accepted, because people just shoot them to get rid of them. The boys and buffalo are not accepted, and most people think they are worthless.
The second way the boys and buffalo are alike is how they are both held captive. The boys are shipped off to a summer camp against their will, while the buffalo are penned up, and doomed to die. The buffalo pens, "...were eight feet high, the crossbars rough cut 4by8's as big as railroad ties which were bolted to posts a foot or more in diameter."(120) The buffalo are penned up and not expected to get out. Teft is held captive when, "They put him aboard the plane at Kennedy like a prisoner."(74) When he gets to the camp, they try to hold him captive. Even in completely different situations the boys and buffalo are both help captive and confined against their will.
The final parallel between the boys and buffalo is their freedom. The boys free the buffalo from certain death. In doing so, they also free themselves, by feeling that they have done something worthy enough not to be worthless. The herd of buffalo is free when. "Half to the right, half to the left, it skedaddled off into the wide open spaces of these United States, where it belonged."(191) In the end the boys and buffalo are both free.
In showing how the boys and buffalo are both dings, it shows a parallel of how they are alike. The boys and buffalo are both help captive, even if in completely different ways. The theme of freedom in this book is found in both the buffalo and the boys. This shows the connection of boys and buffalo, two seemingly unlike things.
