In Karen Fowler’s lecture, she delves into the relationship
between the human child and the chimpanzee, and how each exerts an equally
powerful influence on the other. Most notably, Fowler notes in past studies
that have attempted to raise a chimpanzee in a human environment, the main
focus of the project is how the chimpanzee responds to, interprets, and learns
human behavior. Responding to this approach, Fowler notes though the research
was successful in obtaining data on how the chimpanzee responded to a human
environment, most projects completely overlooked the effect of the chimpanzee
on the human child’s behavior. Fowler’s text addresses this shortcoming through
the delayed reveal of Fern’s identity.
Prior to Rosemary’s revelation on page 77, Fowler allows the
characters of Rosemary and Fern to develop in the reader’s mind through
description alone. By not explicitly revealing Fern as a chimpanzee, the reader
is ignorant of the social stigmas and associations attached to this label. This
approach not only highlights the similarities of Fern’s behavior to humans, but
further reveals how Fern’s presence impacted Rosemary’s upbringing.
In the diner scene, Rosemary’s decision to throw the glass
down resembles the immaturity and impulsiveness of a chimpanzee. Amidst the
chaos of the diner scene, Rosemary cannot control her instinct to join in. Rosemary
notes, “I didn’t just let [the glass of milk] go. I threw that glass down as
hard as I could” (10). This instinctive impulsiveness is mirrored in her rationalization
of why she dropped the plate. Though she does admit to dropping the plate, she
attempts to explain her behavior by saying, “I honestly didn’t mean to. The
fingers of my left hand just unclenched all of the sudden.” (10). Rosemary’s
behavior in the diner scene vaguely mirrors the hasty, uncalculated decisions
of a chimp. Rather than acting through reason and self-control, a more
animalistic version of Rosemary surfaces that reveals the impact of Fern’s
presence on Rosemary’s upbringing.
Likewise, Rosemary is similarly drawn to animals and is able
to connect in a way she is unable to for humans. After moving back to
Bloomington, Rosemary recalls troubles getting along with the local
neighborhood kids. She notes, “There was no one I could reasonably be expected
to play with. Instead I got acquainted with the neighborhood animals.” (61).
Rosemary’s natural connection with the neighborhood dogs contrasts with her
unrefined and unorthodox behavior in kindergarten. Fern’s presence in Rosemary’s
upbringing again reveals its influence, as Rosemary is scolded for such behaviors
as “putting [her] fingers into anyone else’s mouth or hair” and “biting” (102).
Indeed, Rosemary even notes in kindergarten she learned that “different is
different … None of that changed who I fundamentally was, my not-quite-human,
my tabloid monkey-girl self.” (103). Through the delayed reveal of Fern’s
identity, Fowler is able to investigate the flipside of the human
child-chimpanzee situation. Rather than solely focusing on how a human
upbringing shaped the behavior of a chimpanzee, Fowler sheds light on the
overlooked, and slightly disturbing, effect of the chimpanzee on human
behavior.
I definitely agree with this post – Fowler’s novel ‘fills in the cracks’ of the possible outcome for the human children from those various chimpanzee studies.
ReplyDeleteAs you have shown us, Rosemary does exhibit chimp-like and animal-like tendencies during her lifetime. Furthermore, throughout the story, we hear various times that Rosemary actually attempts to rid herself of these chimp-like qualities. She describes to us her kindergarten report card: “I’d been described as impulsive, possessive, and demanding. These are classic chimp traits and I’ve worked hard over the years to eradicate them” (169). She is always conscientious about her body placement and behavior, trying to appear less chimp-like and more similar to a ‘normal’ human. When she still lived in the dorms, her ‘friends’ claimed that Rosemary was lucky to have such a normal family. Her response was relief: “Apparently, I’d finally erased all those little cues, those matters of personal space, focal distance, facial expression, vocabulary.” (132) For the most part, we do observe Rosemary ‘acting normal’ in regards to these areas.
We also observe, however, these chimp-like traits appearing when Rosemary’s guard is let down. Such as in the cafeteria example described above, so too does she act more like a chimp during her alcohol and drug infused escapades. On page 169, Reg makes a comment about Rosemary getting in his personal space and how she tends to crowd people. When she lands in jail yet again with Harlow, she realizes: “my own hands now were making the same crawling shit sign. It didn’t seem as if I could stop them.” (174) So even while Rosemary has always tried to hid her chimp-ness, her nature is so influenced by Fern growing up that these qualities reappear from time to time.