zoo story

A detailed Summary of zoo story

In Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, Jerry has trouble distinguishing between emotions

of love and anger, because of his unhappy childhood. This is shown repeatedly throughout the

story in both is words and actions. His inability to organize his feelings is what ultimately causes

When Jerry tells the story of the dog, he says he first fed the dog hamburgers in order to

gain its trust, and allow him free passage throughout his apartment. When this didn't change his

relationship with the animal, he fed it a poisoned hamburger in an attempt to kill. Later in his

story he tells Peter "that I didn't want the dog to die. I didn't, and not just because I'd

poisoned him" (18). He reaffirms this again in the story when he says "I loved the dog now, and

I wanted him to love me" (19). At first, he showed the dog love with un-poisoned hamburgers.

someone with a serious mental disorder. It is not surprising to see Jerry have the same sort of

misunderstand, well then, why have we invented the word love in the first place?" (20). This

Jerry tells the story of the dog, and afterward his emotions change to anger and hate. He

And, perhaps, was the dog's attempt to bite me not an act of love? If we can so

early in the story that his mother died when he was ten and a half years old, and his father

Jerry has problems connecting to others people, resulting from an unhappy childhood.

not understand why Jerry is acting in his schizophrenic way, even though it was told to him

Approximate Word count = 598
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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