Do Seek Their Meat from God
—Struggling for survival and reproduction is a significant element in nature, and to reach this goal, species often compete with one another.
In the short story “Do Seek Their Meat from God”, Charles G.D. Roberts uses allusion to compare the panthers that seek food for survival with the roaring lions that seek meat from God in the Bible. In the Bible, through the description that even lions have to beg God for food, God’s greatness is interpreted.The story shows the fierce competition for survival between humans and animals to illustrate the idea that humanity is the essential to survival.
At beginning, Roberts gives the panthers emotions by describing their tough situation which forces them to prey on the boy; they depend on meat for "not only their own but the lives of their blind and helpless young" (para 5). By contrasting the man that saves the child whom he does not know to be his own child with the panthers that prey on the child for survival, Roberts highlights humanity to separate humans from animals. Humans, caring and civilized, are unlike the panthers that are seen as wild beasts with ghostly features. These animals are only trying to accomplish "that for which nature [has] so exquisitely designed them" (para14) and finally lose the battle of survival to humans.
