Only the Animals

by

Ceridwen Dovey

In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Hazel is a chimp in training with Evelyn to become Peter’s wife. Like Peter, Hazel’s training is supposed to make her human. Hazel dictates all her letters to Evelyn—though Evelyn notes that Hazel can read, it’s unclear if she can write yet. Unlike Peter, Hazel doesn’t seem to take to her training as well. Sometimes she writes as though she’d like to become human, but other times, she describes animalistic activities, like scratching herself, that suggest she doesn’t want to stop being a chimp. Peter makes it clear that Hazel wasn’t given a choice about becoming human: she simply passed aptitude tests and was selected to become Peter’s wife. Though Hazel becomes more human over the course of the story, her progress halts entirely when she suffers something of a mental break after discovering that Peter is in love with Evelyn. Hazel begins to challenge and taunt Peter in her letters, and uses the fact that she’s in between being human and chimp to horrify Peter. As World War I grips Hamburg, Hazel gradually loses her humanity—and eventually she doesn’t have any food to eat. Though Hazel insists she’s starving herself as a publicity stunt, it also seems as though Evelyn is withholding food. The story implies that Evelyn, who is also starving, ultimately eats Hazel out of desperation.

Hazel Quotes in Only the Animals

The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Hazel or refer to Hazel. 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:
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon
).
Red Peter’s Little Lady: Soul of Chimpanzee Quotes

They—the humans, that is—seem to think that what sets them apart from other animals is their ability to love, grieve, feel guilt, think abstractly, et cetera. They are misguided. What sets them apart is their talent for masochism. Therein lies their power. To take pleasure in pain, to derive strength from deprivation, is to be human.

Related Characters: Red Peter (speaker), Hazel
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

Frau Oberndorff gave me a pet cricket. The cricket lives in a walnut shell. If you hold him up and look at him directly, he looks fierce. The man who brought the cricket to the zoo said he would win battles against other crickets if we first chop up a fly and feed it to him to make him violent.

Related Characters: Hazel (speaker), Red Peter, Frau Evelyn Oberndorff
Related Symbols: Food
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hazel Quotes in Only the Animals

The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Hazel or refer to Hazel. 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:
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon
).
Red Peter’s Little Lady: Soul of Chimpanzee Quotes

They—the humans, that is—seem to think that what sets them apart from other animals is their ability to love, grieve, feel guilt, think abstractly, et cetera. They are misguided. What sets them apart is their talent for masochism. Therein lies their power. To take pleasure in pain, to derive strength from deprivation, is to be human.

Related Characters: Red Peter (speaker), Hazel
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

Frau Oberndorff gave me a pet cricket. The cricket lives in a walnut shell. If you hold him up and look at him directly, he looks fierce. The man who brought the cricket to the zoo said he would win battles against other crickets if we first chop up a fly and feed it to him to make him violent.

Related Characters: Hazel (speaker), Red Peter, Frau Evelyn Oberndorff
Related Symbols: Food
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis: