Colombo and Le Guin

In “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths”, Gary Colombo encourages us to go beyond the obvious meanings in day-to-day life. Colombo tells us that in order to think critically, we must explore and question the facts we are given, rather than simply accepting them as true. In order to achieve this, we must be able to look at the world through the perspectives of others. We must be capable of looking beyond our own cultural beliefs and myths, our own ideals. Only by beginning to question our own cultural myths may we learn to think critically by questioning other aspects of our society.

In Ursula Le Guin’s “Buffalo Gals”, we delve into a myth that is far from traditional. In Le Guin’s story, we enter the lives of the animals. We learn about their personal lives, their lovers, and their messy rooms. It is a rare occurrence that we think about the personal lives of the animals in our world. We instead see animals as creatures driven by instinct, acting purely out of their necessity to survive. Le Guin’s piece allows us to think critically by questioning the traditional myths and assumptions we have about animals.

Colombo states, “By questioning the myths that dominate our culture, we can begin to resist the limits they impose on our vision”. Perhaps Le Guin’s intention was to open our eyes to the generalizations we make about animals on a daily basis, encouraging us to think critically about their true impact on our lives and our world.