Quote 1
“What I felt was a—a mental chill; a sort of sudden dread." (1.22)
Whitney taps into a central idea here: that the violence the characters will experience is not limited to what happens to your body, it’s also what happens in your head. But Rainsford dismisses Whitney’s fear as “Pure imagination.”
Quote 2
"Even so, I rather think they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death." (1.13)
Of our small cast and crew here, Whitney is definitely the most sympathetic. So why does he hunt?
Quote 3
"Even so, I rather think they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death." (1.10)
Whitney offers a compelling argument to Rainsford’s dismissive attitude toward killing jaguars: that they understand fear. Perhaps without intending it, Whitney assumes that animals have a complex understanding of what being hunted means. Do you think animals really know that they could die, or do they just flee by instinct? Do you agree with Whitney or with Rainsford here?