Hazel Character Analysis

In “Red Peter’s Little Lady,” Hazel is a chimp in training with Evelyn to become Peter’s wife. Like Peter, Hazel’s training is supposed to make her human. Hazel dictates all her letters to Evelyn—though Evelyn notes that Hazel can read, it’s unclear if she can write yet. Unlike Peter, Hazel doesn’t seem to take to her training as well. Sometimes she writes as though she’d like to become human, but other times, she describes animalistic activities, like scratching herself, that suggest she doesn’t want to stop being a chimp. Peter makes it clear that Hazel wasn’t given a choice about becoming human: she simply passed aptitude tests and was selected to become Peter’s wife. Though Hazel becomes more human over the course of the story, her progress halts entirely when she suffers something of a mental break after discovering that Peter is in love with Evelyn. Hazel begins to challenge and taunt Peter in her letters, and uses the fact that she’s in between being human and chimp to horrify Peter. As World War I grips Hamburg, Hazel gradually loses her humanity—and eventually she doesn’t have any food to eat. Though Hazel insists she’s starving herself as a publicity stunt, it also seems as though Evelyn is withholding food. The story implies that Evelyn, who is also starving, ultimately eats Hazel out of desperation.