Just So Stories

Caves appear throughout Just So Stories as a symbol of society and civilization. The stories tell of the movement from the wild, unstructured days at the start of the world to the orderly system of modern society. Caves act as a portal into this more civilized world, setting the human characters apart from the rest of the natural world and reflecting The Relationship Between Man and Animals.

The cave as a symbol of civilization is most apparent in “The Cat Who Walked by Himself.” The Woman tames first the Man and then a succession of wild animals, and the cave plays an important role in this process. She insists on “keep[ing] house” in “a nice dry Cave,” instead of sleeping in “a heap of wet leaves” like the Man does (62). She hangs a dried skin over the mouth of the cave, physically separating them from the natural world, and insists that the Man “wipe [his] feet” (62) when he comes inside. The cave is the thing that begins to differentiate humans from other animals. 

One by one, the wild animals come to the cave, and the Woman makes her deals with them. Their approach to the cave and entrance, in the Dog’s case, marks their shift from wildness to domestication.