164 / Types of Writing
upright, but only with a bowlegged, slightly bent shuffle. They had only crude spears, fashioned
from sharpened sticks. They merely wrapped skins around them, neither cut nor stitched to fit.
Quite simply, he saw them as “half-animal, half-human abominations.”
His outrage at learning about her relationship to the Clan leaves Ayla confused and frustrated.
Tall and blonde, quite different from the short, stocky, dark, hairy Clan people, Ayla grew up
believing she was ugly.
Different was ugly. So she accepts the Clan—both the people and their ways—as normal.
She has seen no other human until Jondalar. Because she understands the Clan’s human-
ness, their sensitivity, their customs, and their interpretation of the spirit world, she cannot
understand Jondalar’s reaction. It is only after several highly emotional scenes and obvious
innocence on her part that Ayla is gradually able to give Jondalar enough insight into the Clan
world that he begins to see his error. He struggles with reason. “Could Ayla be that? Could she
be defiled? Unclean? Filth? Evil? Honest, straightforward Ayla? With her Gift of healing? So
wise, and fearless, and gentle, and beautiful.” Ultimately, when he acknowledges that animals
don’t recognize a spiritual world, Jondalar is able to accept the fact that maybe—only maybe—
Clan people are human.
The obvious parallel of these two representatives of opposing cultures with contemporary
society leads the reader to wonder whether civilization has made much progress in the area
of human relations and willingness to accept and understand other cultures. Indeed, Auel has
dealt with a delicate subject in such a distant context that some readers may find the paral-
lel invalid. With other themes readily a part of the trilogy, a reader may well choose to discuss
them instead. The obvious intent of the plot of The Valley of the Horses, however, surely must
be to help the readers see what Jondalar sees: Without thorough understanding and insight,
without walking in the other fellow’s moccasins, so to speak, one cannot understand his ways.
Too often, what is different is ugly; what is different is wrong. It is called prejudice.ANALYSIS of THE SAMPLE foR SoCIAL SCIENCES
The following specific analytical comments emphasize the difference between a book
report for an English class and one of the same book for a social sciences class:
- The first two paragraphs in the social sciences book report are very similar to
those in the book report for English. The differences are subtle: a reference
to the area in which many anthropologists locate the beginnings of civilization,
and the omission of such phrases as unusual historical novel. Certainly the
plot, summarized in paragraph 2, will be the same for any subject area. - The obvious differences begin in paragraphs 3 and 4. The writer approaches
this complicated novel via the sociology strand. By dealing specifically with
the understanding the two characters must gain from each other about their
respective cultures, the writer tailors her report to the social science subject
area. The paragraphs merely summarize those specific areas of conflict; they
do not evaluate or respond critically. [For a comparison, see Chapter 27, Literary
Analyses, and Chapter 36, Review.]