Mary Austin "The Scavengers

I wanted to comment on an interesting connection that Austin makes in this chapter. In the second paragraph of page 17 she notes that as the number of dead creatures rises, so too does the number of living creatures. These living creatures are the scavengers. It is interesting to see, through this connection, the balance of life. The death of a living animal serves to sustain the life of a scavenger. Nothing is wasted, for the scavengers pick the carrion clean, and the cycle of life continues.

I also find her comparison of the scavengers to the plague as interesting. In the same paragraph that was discussed above, she says "the scavengers were as black as the plague..." I think that it is interesting that these scavengers, so essential to the balance of life, are characterized in such a way. The scavengers do not cause death, they merely clean up after it. It seems that throughout the chapter she has a certain respect for the scavengers and what they do; she does not shy away from discussing death and the scavengers' way of life. Yet, she also links them to disease and death by making this comparison to the plague.