The Dodo’s Eulogy: An Examination of the Impressions of Raphus cucullatus

Popular Depictions

Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland also featured a dodo in its fantastic narration of Alice's journey in a world of strange talking animals (Carroll 1865). The dodo appears during a portion of the story called the "Caucus Race," a commentary on how political party races circle around so that no goals are actually fulfilled and nothing is actually accomplished. In the story, the race was officiated by the dodo, who was little more than a bird singing while a motley group of characters ran around the rock on which he was perched. This story depicted the dodo as a goofy individual who made no progress and mindlessly continued on the same path, however ineffectual. Much of Carroll's inspiration for the story, especially the dodo, came from Oxford University and the Ashmolean Museum (Lovett 2018).

Modern film versions of Carroll's story have portrayed the dodo in the same light. In Tim Burton's 2010 adaptation of the film, the dodo had a similar character but with a more modern and fantastical appearance. These depictions support the popular opinion that dodos were simple, slow-witted creatures, based on Carroll's 19th C. perspective.

In contemporary popular culture, the dodo continues to appear in novels and movies, as an animal character with a distinct identity. In the 2002 animated film Ice Age, a group of dodos appears as they prepare for the impending Ice Age. Of course, the assumption is that they will be wiped out by it, as they were in the 17th C.As such, they were portrayed as foolish and their efforts enacted more harm to themselves than good. Ultimately, in the plot line, the dodos lose all of the food that they had saved for the Ice Age in a short period while also managing to lose their last female companion. In this way, we can be assured of their demise in the film as well. This portrayal, and Lewis Carroll's, highlights the species perceived awkwardness and was likely drawn from earlier painted depictions by Savery, as they are highly similar in appearance and lack of poise.

In J.K. Rowling's 2001 Harry Potter companion book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we can also find a bird that is clearly related to the dodo (Rowling 2001). Rowling presents a species known as the diricawl, which were essentially a dodo to the muggles (common non-wizard people). It is described as a "plump, fluffy-feathered and flightless magical bird, native to the island of Mauritius," (Diricawl 2001). They are classified as XX in the Ministry of Magic Classification system, meaning that they are harmless and can be domesticated (Diricawl 2001). Although not an exact representation of the dodo, diricawls are meant to be an imaginative version to match the Harry Potter Universe. Again, these dodo-like birds echo the belief that dodos are helpless creatures that are foolish and unsuited for survival.In all of these fictional worlds, the dodo holds an important place and offers us a contemporary view of the species, keeping it relevant in modern culture. However, these popular views have not taken into account the ever changing perspective that the scientific community has offered us from the new research.

This page has paths:

This page references: