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The Dolphin/Sprout
Officer Bloomington is Sprout’s trainer in “A Letter to Sylvia Plath.” He begins working with dolphins in the Navy in the late 1970s and quickly forms a close bond with Sprout in particular. He believes he needs to earn the right to give the dolphins orders, so he treats them as equals who can understand everything he says. And indeed, Sprout tells readers she does know what he wants her to do and understands everything he says. And because of this kind treatment, he inspires loyalty in Sprout’s generation that never existed in the older generation of dolphins, who were trained as subordinates. Because Sprout loves Bloomington so much, she’s upset when Officer Mishin arrives from the former Soviet Union to work with him and the Navy dolphins—and he falls immediately in love with her. They eventually get married after 9/11. Throughout his career, Bloomington does what he can to advocate for his dolphins. He tries on multiple occasions to refuse to train them to do certain tasks, believing that the Navy will eventually force the dolphins into unethical or unsafe situations. Ultimately, though, Bloomington’s worst fears come true when, during the American invasion of Iraq, Sprout is tasked with attaching a what she believes is a tracking device onto an enemy diver. Sprout doesn’t know if Officer Bloomington knows that the device is actually lethal and not just a tracker, and the story never reveals the truth one way or the other.
Officer Bloomington Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Officer Bloomington or refer to Officer Bloomington. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Letter to Sylvia Plath: Soul of Dolphin
Quotes
Some native wild dolphins were also killed this way, though we’d tried to keep them away from the area by acting territorially. Officer Bloomington took this especially hard. He hadn’t anticipated it as a consequence and blamed himself for their deaths. He felt that the skilled Navy dolphins at least had a chance of defending themselves, but the native dolphins had been put directly in harm’s way. He tried to record their deaths officially so that this could be prevented on future missions, but his superiors blocked him, worried about a public outcry.
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We take killing a human very hard. It is as taboo for us as killing our own babies. We recognise in you what your ancients used to recognise in us and understood as sacred a long time ago, when killing a dolphin was punishable by death. You used to think of us as being closer to the divine than any other animal on earth, as being messengers and mediators between you and your gods. You honoured us with Delphinus, our own constellation in the northern sky.
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Officer Bloomington Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Officer Bloomington or refer to Officer Bloomington. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Letter to Sylvia Plath: Soul of Dolphin
Quotes
Some native wild dolphins were also killed this way, though we’d tried to keep them away from the area by acting territorially. Officer Bloomington took this especially hard. He hadn’t anticipated it as a consequence and blamed himself for their deaths. He felt that the skilled Navy dolphins at least had a chance of defending themselves, but the native dolphins had been put directly in harm’s way. He tried to record their deaths officially so that this could be prevented on future missions, but his superiors blocked him, worried about a public outcry.
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We take killing a human very hard. It is as taboo for us as killing our own babies. We recognise in you what your ancients used to recognise in us and understood as sacred a long time ago, when killing a dolphin was punishable by death. You used to think of us as being closer to the divine than any other animal on earth, as being messengers and mediators between you and your gods. You honoured us with Delphinus, our own constellation in the northern sky.
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