Gorilla, My Love

Gorilla, My Love Summary | Detailed Summary

Jefferson Winston Vale, who for a very long time has been known as Hunca Bubba, decides to once again begin using his given name. This decision doesn't sit particularly well with the narrator, a young girl named Hazel, who has known Jefferson Winston Vale as Hunca Bubba all of her life. Hunca Bubba is Hazel's uncle. She began calling him Hunca Bubba when she was a little girl and couldn't properly say the word "uncle."

One afternoon, while Hazel, her grandfather, Hunca Bubba and her brother Baby Jason are together in the car, Hunca Bubba tells them about the girl he is currently in love with. He has a picture of her, which he passes around for the others to see. Hazel notices that there is a movie theater in the background and because she is a fan of the movies, she asks about it.

Hazel explains that she has enjoyed going to the movies for as long as she can remember. She recalls the previous Easter: Hazel, Baby Jason and Big Brood decide to see a movie. Because most of the theaters are either closed or too far away, they settle on seeing Gorilla, My Love at the neighborhood theater. When the movie begins, Hazel is dismayed to learn that it is not about gorillas, but rather about Jesus. Her friends are likewise irritated and so they begin to boo, stomp and be generally disruptive. The usher attempts to settle them down, but this makes the kids all the more loud. Finally Brandy, the one usher that the kids are afraid of, appears and so they settle down and watch the movie.

As Hazel watches the movie, she wonders how her own family would react if Big Brood were on the cross like Jesus. She imagines that her mother would yell at him to stop acting so foolishly while her father would get a ladder and attempt to get him down. Meanwhile, some of the other relatives would offer their opinions, which would cause a family fight that would continue on long after Big Brood was removed from the cross. Meanwhile, Hazel would be in the living room attempting to do her homework.

As her attention returns to the movie, Hazel decides to begin a chant, demanding that she receive her money back. She is soon joined by others in the theater and before long the chorus of demands is so loud that the projectionist turns up the audio volume to drown out the sound of their protests. This makes Hazel even more irritated and so she decides to seek out the theater's manager and ask for a refund. When the manager tries to ignore her, she kicks the office door open, walks in and sits down. When he still doesn't agree to refund her money, she leaves his office, but not without first taking a package of matches that she uses to set fire to the candy stand. The damage caused by the fire is extensive enough to force the theater to close for a week.

When Hazel's father learns from Big Brood that she set the fire, she justifies her actions by saying that the movie advertised wasn't the movie that was actually shown. This, according to Hazel, isn't much different than deciding to not give her a party on her birthday after having promised to do so, or telling her she can go pecan hauling with her grandfather and then making her stay home because the weather looks as though it may turn bad. Hazel says that if she is expected to keep her word, everyone else should be expected to do the same. Her father agrees with this logic and rather than inflict the beating he had planned as punishment for setting the fire, he puts his belt back on.

Hazel believes that by deciding to change his name, her uncle has gone back on his word. Even though her family has tried to explain that he wants to change his name because he is planning to be married, Hazel still does not agree. While she is in the car with her grandfather and Baby Jason, she asks Hunca Bubba if he is indeed going to marry the girl in the picture. When he answers that he is planning to do so, she reminds him of a time a few years before when he was babysitting her. He told her that she was the cutest thing that ever walked the earth and that he was going to marry her when she got older.

Hunca Bubba is quiet for a few minutes before telling her that he was only teasing her then. In an effort to break the uncomfortable silence that follows, Hazel's grandfather suggests that the person who made that promise - Hunca Bubba - no longer exists. He has been replaced by Jefferson Winston Vale, who intends to marry his girlfriend. This doesn't appease Hazel and she turns around and begins to cry. She is aware that her brother is crying as well and assumes that it is because he knows that they need to stick together, especially if they must endure disappointments like this for the rest of their lives.