In the Zoo

In the Zoo Summary | Detailed Summary

"In the Zoo" is a short story about two orphaned sisters forced to live with a family friend who teaches them lessons of negativity, suffering, and cruelty. The perseverance and hope at the core of the sisters allows them to rise above their situation, although they bear the scars of their childhood forever.

As the story begins, two sisters - the narrator, and the other named Daisy - sit on a bench at the Denver Zoo and watch a blind polar bear, a rambunctious black bear, some grizzly bears, and a group of monkeys. The sisters meet every other year as the narrator visits Daisy who then accompanies her to Denver to wait for her train back East.

As the sisters watch the antics of the animals, they are struck by the resemblance of the polar bear to a man named Mr. Murphy from their childhood. The mention of Mr. Murphy's name sends each sister into a private reverie about the childhood spent in the small town of Adams, Colorado about an hour's drive north of Denver.

The sisters were orphaned at the ages of eight and ten and were placed in the care of a woman named Mrs. Placer, who was a friend of their grandmother. All the girls have when their father dies is a small life insurance policy, but Mrs. Placer takes the girls in because she had been widowed and needs the money to supplement her income running a boardinghouse. Mrs. Placer insists the girls call her Gran although they are not related to her and she shows no particular fondness or kindness toward the girls.

Surrounded only by the sad, lonely residents of the boardinghouse, the sisters do their chores and schoolwork with no encouragement, only punishment and belittling behavior, and they seek the company of Mr. Murphy, a kind, unemployed Irishman who lives by the railroad tracks. Mr. Murphy has a small zoo of animals in his care, including a French-speaking parrot and two capuchin monkeys.

The girls grow to love Mr. Murphy and consider him and his little menagerie as their own family. Mr. Murphy receives a half-collie/ half-Labrador puppy one day and offers it to the girls who are amazed when Gran lets them bring the puppy home. Gran weighs the pros and cons of bringing a dog into the house but decides affirmatively when the concept of the dog being a good watchdog is presented.

The sisters revel in their new pet named Laddy who learns quickly, walks the girls to school, and enjoys himself on hunting weekends with one of his own dog buddies. Gran does not approve of Laddy's behavior when he returns from his weekend adventures and decides to re-train the dog to be more disciplined. Gran changes Laddy's name to Caesar and makes the dog sleep on the floor in her bedroom every night now instead of letting him sleep with the sisters.

Gran's disciplinary actions soon turn the once lovable Laddy into a ferocious attack dog who continually bites and growls at strangers and neighbors alike. The police demand that Caesar be muzzled and Gran accommodates the order only when Caesar's growls warn her that the police are coming toward the house.

The sisters continue to visit Mr. Murphy and tell him that Laddy is fine even though nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Murphy's legendary bad temper is easily roused and the girls want to avoid any potential problems should Mr. Murphy find out what has happened to Laddy.

The girls' ruse does not fool Mr. Murphy very long because word of Caesar's behavior has spread around town. One day Mr. Murphy accompanies the sisters home to speak to Gran about the dog's treatment and newly vicious behavior. Mr. Murphy arrives at Gran's house carrying his monkey, Shannon, on his shoulders.

At the sight of the unusual visitors, Gran releases Caesar who immediately leaps up at the monkey, killing it in just a few shakes. Gran half-heartedly reprimands Caesar and Mr. Murphy takes the lifeless body of the monkey away from the house. The very next day Caesar dies after eating some poisoned meat left at the house by the distraught Mr. Murphy. The sisters cannot bear to watch the final jerking movements of the dog and run away to hide in the mountains. Mr. Murphy is arrested for the crime just as he is in the middle of a requiem mass for his monkey but is released because no one in the town can blame him for retribution.

After Shannon's death, Mr. Murphy becomes even more reclusive and the sisters are forbidden to spend any more time with him. Gran becomes even crueler with age and belittles every thing the girls want to do, which includes dating boys and taking part in school plays. The sisters end their reverie and talk about why they did not ever try to escape from Gran's house. The practical reasons of their ages and no possibility of employment due to the Great Depression at the time seem to pale when compared to the dysfunctional lives they lived in Gran's house. The girls sold Gran's house upon her death and never returned to the town.

Daisy suddenly experiences an asthma attack and the sisters find a cab and move toward the train station as Daisy takes her adrenaline injection. Both young women are glad to have Daisy's asthma to distract them from reliving the past one more time. At the train station, the sisters comment on some of the passengers and subtly project that the porter will misplace the narrator's luggage because he knows there is a twenty-dollar gold piece packed inside.

The sisters say their goodbyes and the narrator intercepts a Catholic priest for the writing table in the train car and writes a letter to Daisy confirming her love for her and how much better life is now that Gran is dead. The narrator finishes her letter, relinquishes the writing table to the priest, and moves to a seat by the window where she watches the fields of alfalfa, which she is convinced are covers for marijuana crops. The narrator begins to laugh and cannot stop herself even after conjuring up the memory of the blind polar bear in the zoo and finally picks up the newspaper so that she can hide behind the gossip column.