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Literary notes about predator (AI summary)

In literature, the word "predator" carries a layered significance that goes beyond the merely zoological. It is often employed to illustrate power dynamics and the inherent struggle between dominance and vulnerability, as seen when it symbolizes the extreme imbalance in relationships between beings [1, 2]. At times, it describes literal hunters in nature—animals that dominate their ecological niches by preying on smaller species [3, 4, 5]—while in other contexts it is used metaphorically to evoke the darker aspects of human behavior and societal structure [6, 7, 8]. Authors also manipulate the notion to explore themes of survival, control, and the disruption of established order, whether by invoking the stealth and danger of a stalking creature [9, 10] or by scrutinizing economic systems where entities act as metaphorical predators in competitive markets [11, 12].
  1. To society the most alien relations of two living beings which can be produced are those of the predator and his prey.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  2. In general, the predator is bulkier than his prey, since he overcomes him and devours him.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  3. This important predator on smaller fishes, which is in turn a major item in the diet of the alligator, is quite easily recognized.
    — from Everglades WildguideHandbook 143 by Jean Craighead George
  4. The spotted frog is a large-mouthed predator that not only eats water striders and other insects but also gulps down smaller frogs and small fish.
    — from Many-Storied Mountains: The Life of Glacier National Park by Greg Beaumont
  5. Powerful and intelligent, the wolf stands out as one of Nature’s finest predator creations.
    — from Mammals of Mount Rainier National Park by Russell K. Grater
  6. .I drew it in anger on the ground, then with my foot blurred away the sharp point, to show that I was no great predator, but only a man.
    — from The Mantooth by Christopher Leadem
  7. Man, the most ruthless and intelligent predator of all, is the only species which has been successful in exterminating others.
    — from Mammals of the Southwest Mountains and Mesas by George Olin
  8. He is a predator and he hunts for congruence, cohesion and meaning.
    — from Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema by Samuel Vaknin
  9. For a fraction of a second the predator was visible behind the smoky windowpanes of his eyes; then, quickly, it ducked out of sight.
    — from A Knyght Ther Was by Robert F. Young
  10. "We were nearly finished," raged the baron, pacing like an angry predator in the glade.
    — from The Ties That Bind by Walter M. Miller
  11. These services are aimed at re-establishing economic equilibrium in the host (predator) economies.
    — from After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin
  12. The national economies of the world can be divided to the scavenger and the predator types.
    — from After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin

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