Why do people tend to be very reluctant when it comes to pigs? Stinky, filthy, insensitive, a pigsty is a place where no one wants to be close to and no one wants to be there. Passing by pig farms one cannot fail to sense the disgusting odor that one can smell from afar. However, ham, sausages, schnitzels and many more specialties of the pork might the favorite of humans. However, the old good animal does not seem to change as it continues loving its mud swimming pool. For this reason, not many people want to keep a pig as a pet, although the poor creature can feed on almost anything it’s fed with. It can consume the leftovers of the table to its delight and this means that one does not have to spend much on its food (Movie babe).
After all, pigs are also creations of God. Concerning its character, it could only be changed by God. However, it does not mean that pigs are for no good. They can be compassionate and charismatic. They can take care and they can be sensitive to some extent. As evidenced in the movie Babe there can be so much good of pig. Pigs could be big-hearted and open-minded and this could be in a great way affect both humans and other animals positively.
The movie Babe is a bildungsroman. Bildungsroman refers to a novel that develops itself all the way around. Bildungsroman is generally used and it encompasses a small number of genres: the Erziehungsroman is a genre that focuses on formal education and training, the Kunstlerroman is a genre that focuses on the development of an artist, the development of an artist, and the Entwicklungsroman which focuses on general growth story rather than that of self-culture. The movie Babe very well suits the Kunstlerroman genre.
Most generally, as it is in the case of the movie Babe, Bildungsroman is a story of an individual’s advancement and development within an environment of a given social order. The process of growing at its roots a mission story is an apprenticeship to being and seeking out for significant existence within the social order. In bildungsroman, the process of coming to maturity is quite long gradual, and arduous and a series of clashes between the desires, needs, views, and judgments of the protagonist and the inflexible social order. In the end, the values and the spirit of the social order are manifested in the protagonist and at the end of it the protagonist ends up being accommodated in the society. The movie Babe ends with an appraisal by the central character of himself and his up-to-the-minute place in that the social order.
The movie Babe blends the art exceptional effects with and mastery in performances by animal actors has been used. Farmer Hogget happens to be lucky to wins Babe as a prize in a raffle. He had no idea how the young pigs’ big heart and open mind would affect everyone human and animal alike on his farm. Fly, the matriarch sheepdog as one of her own, raises babe. All the other animals including the dogs, ducks, sheep, and all the other animals in the social setting accept Babe as one of their own and he loves them back. The love crumbled the various barriers that had stood for many years. Babe’s special character makes the farmer hogget to sense something of him and he makes sure that he is well familiar with sheep herding just in case the unexpected should happen (Movie babe).
Babe is encouraged by Fly to learn sheep herding but her mate Rex is unwaveringly not of the opinion for a pig taking over the duties, which have been the old duties of dogs. However, Babe succeeds greatly since he could politely exchange a few words with the sheep as an alternative of maltreating them, as Rex used to do. It is not only Rex who is against Babe but also the family house cat is against the idea that a pig is getting favors from the masters and the high regarded house privileges that she had enjoyed for an extended period of time. At the end of it all Babes compassionate love and charisma turn into friends, even his enemies. The world laughs at Hogget when he enters Babe into Grand National Sheepdog tryouts and this in a strange way the pair matches and they prove that they have dignity and energies to see it through and win.
The animal action is so extended in this film with 970 animals featuring. This is inclusive of 550 sheep. Throughout this film, animals are used. In the early scene of the film when the Babe is chosen to be used as a piglet in the fair contest, the baby pig is raised up to the air with his back legs. This is the most commonly used ways by farmers in handling piglets. In this case, however, the trainer did not allow the piglet to remain in that position for more than three seconds. Pigs have used in place of bullying techniques, courtesy. This character enables Babe to achieve so much success with the sheep. As he trains to be a sheepherder, other animals become so jealous that Rex and Fly engage in a fight because Rex is angry that Babe has achieved so much success at the sheep. Fly tries to defend babe from the Rex who believes that herding the sheep is an insult to their canine bloodline (Movie babe).
When Babe falls for the first time, he perches on top of a log pile and balances himself with his hind legs with his first hooves on the outside of the windowsill. He is putting more effort to get a peek at the life in the farmhouse. There follows a sequence of events as Ferdinand persuades Babe to get his way into the farmhouse and take away the alarm clock. This would enable the duck not to become obsolete and therefore qualify to be a candidate for Christmas dinner. For Babe to get into the farmhouse with the territorial house cat, there are numerous obstacles he has to go through. A course of furniture, paint cans and yarn were the obstacle to go through before getting to stairs and climbing to get the clock. Ferdinand becomes so anxious while watching Babe from the window and not after so long he jump in to help him to get out. Although they succeeded in their mission, they had gone through so many utter chaos. This shows the dedication of a pig to task. In the end the three animals, duck, cat, and pig get soaked with paint and for this reason, they turn the house into an area of disaster.
In a flashback sequence, a fly is seen telling the story of Rex’s attempt to rescue some sheep and in so doing, he was almost killed in a rushing river. He clings to a log of wood that is floating in torrential rain down the river. The story of Babe is about discrimination on a farm where every animal has its predetermined place. The pig has an unprejudiced heart and he takes all animals at face value and he goes on to treat all the sheep and all other animals as equals. Without any form of discrimination, the pig changes their lives and for this reason, he becomes a world champion sheepdog in the course of action (Movie babe).
The character of a pig is honest, tolerant, well-meaning, and it is very friendly. The pig is noble, it is also courageous, and its steady perseverance enables it to prosper. Generally, the pigs are known especially for closing on their days contented and well off. Pig has so many traits of wealth, fertility prosperity and luck (Hsia, p. 160). However, the pig is not without the shadow side of its character. Pigs can be very naïve, overconfident, and gullible. In addition, even though they can lose a lot in their endeavors it always seems to come back to them.
A great character of them is reflected in their way of eating food with enjoyment, how they enjoy sleeping all day long and how they worry about nothing. It is clear that life always works for them in the end. The fire pig is more energetic, courageous and it is so persistent in accomplishing its goals more that the other types of pigs. Ordinarily, the pig is associated with the water element and this makes it to appear lazy (Hsia, p. 160). Once a pig starts moving it is like a very strong river current and for this, it is unstoppable. The pigs can be very clever and persistent as evidenced by a baby pig that was once put inside a gunnysack while blindfolded effectively. The piglet was then placed atop a donkey and it was taken a long way on top of a mountain to its new destination. When the baby pig is set free from the gunnysack, it escaped and immediately got its way back the five miles it was took away back to its mother (Hsia, p. 160).
The scene of pigs walking outside while trying to root out a comfortable hole in a cool ground and her piglets relaxing in a shade could be very interesting. Today’s pig farmers have windowless metal buildings that are so depressing and they conceal pigs in crates, confined cages and bare pens of concrete. Pig farming by small-scale farmers has been affected adversely by the large-scale corporate agriculture that has been advantaged by the drugs that make animals to be confined and the federal tax breaks. For this, they now dominate the pork industry and this has affected the small-scale farmers, the environment, the consumers and the animals themselves. Factory farming has been associated with production of veal. Breeding sow has also been suffering under confinement just like the veal calf and her agony is for many years. After she is impregnation, she is locked in a metallic gestation crate whose sides extends just beyond her body. Her movements are therefore restrained for her whole pregnancy, which is nearly four months. In the unbedded cement floored crate, she is unable to turn around or walk. Feeding takes place at one end of the crate while faeces are collected at the other end. In some crates, standing up and lying down is sometimes strenuous because they are very narrow (San Rafael, Bringing home the beacon-inside the pork industry).
In some factory farms, a strap around the neck sometimes ties the sow or a short chain tied to the floor. She here lives in a state of distress since she is denied an opportunity to fulfill her behavioral needs and exercise. The sow’s reproductive system is strong enough to continue reproducing in spite of the crate distress. The crates make the females to suffer a great deal of leg problems and more stress. “Confined sows are not able to groom normally, they may have difficulty thermo regulating, most are fed small volumes of food infrequently, they cannot interact normally with other sows and they cannot move away from people or other potentially hazardous stimuli.” (San Rafael, Bringing home the beacon-inside the pork industry).
According to Fraser and Broom, animals respond to such situations when they have no control over their environment by performing repeated movements such as rubbing their snouts back and forth in front of the crate or repeated biting of the metal bars of the crate. Scientists who have studied these behaviors have found that sows release endorphins in their brains. They refer to it as a “self-narcotization” that provides a temporary relief from the distress of the crate confinement. They also argue that these behaviors may be a desperate expression of a frustrated animal that has been pushed almost to a point of madness. According to agricultural scientists, confined sows have exhibited a behavior that resembles in many ways the advancement in humans of constant disorders. These stereotypes are an indication of poor environmental conditions, which are most frequent in most tether unit and in most sow stalls.
When a sow that is pregnant is in a free range, she isolates herself before delivering her piglets from the herd. Over this time, she looks for a site where to bring materials and put in place a nest. Even in a case where a sow is raised in a barn shelter, a domestic sow that has been given room and straw to move will organize a nest for her piglets. There are strong bonds formed between mothers and their piglets and it takes several days before the sow leads her piglets into the herd. Confinement adversely affects the behaviors that are involved in looking for a nest, building and bringing up of piglets. A sow in a factory farm is constantly under lock in carte except for the few days when she is being bred.
Towards the end of her pregnancy, the Sow is then moved to another restraining place, furrowing crate, from the gestation crate. This is against al the natural instincts of the sow now that that she must give birth to her piglets, sleep, eat, nurse the piglets, defecate, drink and stand in the same inadequate space. The nursing period is also cut short by the separation pre-maturely of the piglets and their mother because the piglet is immediately re-impregnated and sent back again to the distressful gestation crate. This cycle is repeated repeatedly until the productivity of the sow wanes and in the end she is sent to slaughter.
The explanation for the furrowing crate is that by making the sow immobile, it bars her from lying and injuring her young ones. However, crashing is a problem of the inadequate space and small housing design. When she is given a sufficient space, she gets into the nest while using her snout to sweep the floor, pushing the piglets way while sniffing for them. It is therefore clear from the scientific point of view that crates are only cruel and that they are not necessary. The Sow is a very responsible animal that takes good care of her young ones even without interferences of human.
Studies and various farm records have shown that piglet’s survival is less in crates that in well-designed housing that is less restrictive. On factory farms, piglets are separated with their mothers at the age of 3 weeks and which is far way short of the natural 13 to 17 weeks period of nursing and the 6 weeks allowed on farms that are less intensive. The piglets are then transferred to crowded pens, with bare wire mesh floors, plastic coated metal, perforated metal, or floors made of concrete. In the stressful, cramped, and barren environments, the piglets begin tail biting. Instead of the producers allowing sufficient space and environmental conditions that are necessary to eliminate such conditions they go ahead and cut off the young ones tails. Although drugs are given to pigs all through their lives, painkillers are not among them. This shows how human mistreats the pig and its young ones. The sensitive and intelligent animals have been taking to be more than production units of converting feeds and various additives into pork products.