Department of Rhetoric and Writing

The University of Texas at Austin

Harry Ransom Center

The Serpent Was a Creeper: Religious Representations of Animals and Humanity in Children's Literature


First Serpent

Image Credit: The Little Picture Bible, by Isabella Child

When I was a child, I liked to imagine Adam in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by docile beasts as he handed out names like candy. "Elephant," he'd say--and I liked wondering whether Elephant was a proper noun, the name “Elephant," or simply a category. Elephant would smile gratefully and lumber to the back of the group so that Adam could see and name his next subject.

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