The One And Only Ivan

In The One and Only Ivan, Ivan, the novel’s gorilla narrator has spent most of his life among humans and learned to understand their speech, perplexing words with “meanings within meanings” (34). He has also witnessed the way humans separate themselves from animals, literally caging wild creatures behind glass walls and bars. At the same time, Ivan knows that a sometimes “troubling” but undeniable bond exists between humans and animals, “a connection across time and space, linking [Ivan] to a race of ill-mannered clowns” (5). Throughout the novel, Ivan and his animal friends wrestle with the way humans mistreat and trap animals, while at the same time, the novel suggests that in many ways, humans and animals aren’t so different at all—and as a result, animals deserve to be treated with the same respect as humankind.

Every major animal character in The One and Only Ivan has a backstory that illustrates how cruel and senseless human treatment of animals can be. Ivan’s parents were murdered, while his sister died in the same captivity that brought Ivan to the US; Stella spent years in chains when she was part of a famous circus, and ended up with the foot injury that eventually kills her; Ruby’s family was killed by humans as well, and she was chained 23 hours a day in the circus she belonged to before she came to the US; and