Comparison Paragraph for Animal Dreams

Between Codi and Hallie, there are many differences, yet at the same time, there are a few similarities. Many people seem to view Codi and Hallie as basically the same person, but that's not right. One similarity between the two is that they are both very tall, "The height, at least. wasn't lost on Hallie and me. We turned out to be six feet on average - Hallie one inch over, and I, one inch under." (p.46) Another similarity between Codi and Hallie is that they both were very close to each other: "Hallie and I were so attached, like keenly mismatched Siamese twins conjoined at the back of the mind. We parted again and again and still each time it felt like a medical risk. as if we were being liberated at some terrible cost: the price of a shared organ. We never stopped feeling that knife." (p.8) As for differences, Hallie tends to be significantly more selfless than Codi, with the latter typically being self-centered, "She might as well not have skin, where emotions were concerned. Other people's hurt ran right over into her flesh. For example: I'll flip through a newspaper and take note of the various disasters, and then Hallie will read the same paper and cry her eyes out. She'll feel like she had to do something about it. And me, if I want to do anything, it's to run hell for leather in the other direction." (p.88), which has affected them in different ways: "The strangest thing is that where pain seemed to have anesthetized me, it gave Hallie extra nerve endings. This haunts me. What we suffered in our lives we went through together, but somehow we came out different doors, on different ground levels." (p.89) Another difference is that typically Codi feels tense and unwelcome/out of place, while Hallie almost always feels content. The differences between the two has led Codi to figure out the main difference between the two: "I was getting a dim comprehension of the differences between Hallie and me. It wasn't a matter of courage or dreams, but something a whole lot simpler. A pilot would call it ground orientation. I'd spent a long time circling above the clouds, looking for life, while Hallie was living it." (p.225)