Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Only the Animals, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals
Animals and War
Human Cruelty
Kindness and Compassion
Summary
Analysis
In a letter to Evelyn, Red Peter acknowledges that she asked him not to write—but there’s a war going on, and Herr Hagenbeck told Peter to write to Hazel by first writing to Evelyn. He’s heard that Hazel has made progress in her training, and that it’s time for Peter to have more contact with his future wife. Herr Hagenbeck also shared that Herr Oberndorff is at the front. Peter apologizes to Evelyn, both for writing and for her husband’s absence.
At this point, it’s unclear if Red Peter is an animal like the narrators from the last two chapters or if he’s a human—the story’s title page offers the only indication that he’s a chimpanzee. The fact that it’s hard to tell from the story itself, though, underscores that animals and people aren’t all that different, which is a theme that runs throughout the book.
Themes
To Hazel, Peter writes that he chose her name years ago because of her eye color. His name is Red Peter, for the color of his fur and for his first trainer in Prague. He’s sending this letter to Hazel’s trainer, Frau Oberndorff, who’s taking over Hazel’s training while her husband is gone. She’ll read the letters aloud, though it seems that Hazel’s skills with reading, writing, and speaking are improving quickly.
Though Peter seems fairly human, the mention that he had a trainer is another suggestion that he’s an animal. The word “trainer,” rather than teacher or mentor, implies a power dynamic that puts Peter—and Hazel, as another chimp—below the human trainer. But despite this, Peter still writes to Hazel in a tone that makes it seem like he sees himself as superior. Becoming more human, perhaps, makes an animal “better.”
Themes
Peter writes that he’s sitting with a book of poetry, looking out his hotel window at Hamburg. He’s been thinking of his namesake, who took Peter to see Halley’s Comet in 1910. They watched with some “literary dandies.” One was named Kafka, and he seemed envious of Peter. He laid down with Peter, which made Peter uncomfortable. But then Kafka said that he might not have been able to see the stars standing upright—he might not have survived the “terror” of standing up. This terror is something that Hazel will have to face soon, but Peter assures her that it’s worth it.
Mentioning the writer Kafka is a nod to this story’s source material, a short story by Kafka about a chimp named Red Peter. The character Kafka makes Peter uncomfortable without noticing that he’s doing so, which is another clue that animals like Peter don’t have the power that Peter might think they do. Kafka also introduces the idea that being human—“standing up” is perhaps a reference to humans’ primate ancestors evolving to walk on two feet—is terrifying. But for Peter, the terror is worth it, as it means he gets to write letters like this, and live like a person.
Themes
A note from Evelyn accompanies Hazel’s reply; Hazel dictated her reply to Evelyn. Evelyn writes that Hazel is improving quickly, though her language is a bit coarse. She’s doing well, though, and even wore a dress and shoes earlier. She seems frustrated with her body, which seems like a positive step—it might motivate her to give up on her “chimpanzee habits” and become human, as Peter did. She confirms that her husband is at the front. Their children miss him.
The tone of Evelyn’s letter seems far more formal than Peter’s, suggesting that she’s keeping him at arm’s length distance. And indeed, the bulk of her letter is about Hazel, who seems like a safe, low-stakes subject for Evelyn and Peter to talk about. Evelyn suggests here that part of being human—or at least, becoming one—means taking issue with one’s body.
Themes
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In the accompanying letter to Peter, Hazel asks why her nostrils aren’t tiny and why there’s hair on her back. She’s been doing Frau Oberndorff’s assigned exercises for the ginger biscuits, which make her feces hard. Earlier, she saw women throwing candies to soldiers. It was her first taste of chocolate. She asked why everyone was happy, and Frau Oberndorff said that people are bored of life and glad for a break. They think it’s “exhilarating” to be at war. This is a new word for Hazel—just as her body is now new to her. She ate too much chocolate and got sick.
As Evelyn noted in the preface to this letter, Hazel is very concerned with how her body looks—and specifically, how inhuman it looks. Though she seems to want to be more human, it’s worth noting that Hazel’s descriptions of doing exercises for the cookies reads as very animalistic and simple. She thus exists in an in-between state, where she’s not quite human and not entirely animal—but her animal nature seems to both annoy and delight her.
Themes
Peter writes back to Evelyn and says he was wrong to be so familiar with her, but it’s hard to hold back. The years since he was banished from her have been awful. It’s amazing to know that Evelyn is holding the paper and reading his words. He begs Evelyn to forgive him and to give his love to the children. He misses them and Evelyn.
The opening of Peter’s letter implies that he and Evelyn (who’s implied to be human) had some sort of connection before Peter was banished. If this is true, it’s yet another reminder that humans and animals can have extremely close relationships.
Themes
In the letter to Hazel, Peter is glad that she’s embracing his “healthful German body culture.” He warns her not to eat too much chocolate. Years ago, he decided to follow a strict diet and a body-building program, the same that Hazel now follows. He’s recently begun exercising outside in the nude, but he cautions Hazel to learn to wear clothes before trying it. He chews every bite more than 10 times, which has made him thinner than most humans. He refuses tea, coffee, and alcohol, and it makes him happy to abstain while others indulge. Peter asks Hazel to think of how Herr Hagenbeck decided to create a zoo without bars. Now, Hazel must mentally put the bars back and deny herself pleasure. Eventually, she’ll find pleasure in denying herself things—and it’s this ability to derive pleasure from pain and deprivation that makes a creature human.
Peter doesn’t specify whether he embraced “healthful German body culture” of his own volition, or as part of his training. It seems likely it was part of his training, given that Hazel is now following much the same program. It’s interesting that Peter insists that to be human is to derive pleasure from pain and deprivation, especially since this story often highlights moments when people engage in gluttonous, selfish behavior. Indeed, “The Bones” also made it clear that to be human is to be selfish and to desire luxuries—so perhaps Peter is misinterpreting what sets humans apart from animals.
Themes
Evelyn writes back a preface to Hazel’s letter. She understands that Peter doesn’t want to visit Hazel in the zoo until she’s ready to be his companion, but she’d appreciate it if Peter told his friends to stop visiting. When they come by, they rudely talk about Hazel “being expertly prepared for [Peter’s] enjoyment.” The children know that Peter is writing to Hazel and want to know why he isn’t writing to them. Evelyn can’t explain it. She insists that Peter is wrong about humans and masochism, and she suspects that his letters to Hazel are full of barbs for her. Most people don’t derive pleasure from pain; indeed, most believe that romantic love makes people human. Some even suffer to think of Peter’s body warm beneath his blankets.
Evelyn suggests that Peter’s friends think it’s comical to leer at Hazel, simply because as Peter’s future wife, it’s assumed that she’s going to have sex with him. In this sense, Evelyn is trying to protect Hazel’s privacy like she might for another person, a sign that she sees Hazel and Peter as beings worthy of compassion and privacy. The possibility that Peter’s letters are full of digs at Evelyn casts Peter’s earlier assessment of humans’ relationship to masochism in a new light. Peter could be taking issue with Evelyn denying both herself and Peter the relationship that, he implies, they both want. And when Evelyn says here that “some” suffer to think of Peter’s warm body, it suggests that she suffers because she can’t be with Peter.
Themes
In her letter to Peter, Hazel writes that the zoo is noisy. She’s itchy, but Frau Oberndorff won’t let her scratch. Instead, the woman bathes Hazel and combs her hair. Frau Oberndorff thinks Hazel’s breath is a problem, but Hazel likes her smelly breath. She swings back and forth on the lamp and scratches her bum to then sniff her fingers. She asks how Peter became what he is, and why he wants her.
This passage makes it clear that Hazel lives in a zoo, where she’s being prepared to live life as a human. The way that Hazel describes her differences in opinion with her trainer, moreover, suggests that she’s not happy about this arrangement. She may be curious about Peter and his transformation, but it seems possible that she doesn’t want to undergo the transformation herself.
Themes
In his next letter to Evelyn, Peter apologizes for his acquaintances’ behavior. He insists that Hazel was Hagenbeck’s idea. Peter has been forced to go along with it for the sake of Hagenbeck’s “cursed zoo.” If he had a choice, and if Evelyn had a choice, Peter would choose Evelyn. He fell in love with her the moment they met. She inspired him to become human, not Oberndorff’s mazes or training exercises or beatings. He wanted to be human to touch her. She made him a better human, and he hopes he made her a better ape.
Here, Peter confirms that he may live like a person now, but he’s still essentially a zoo animal. As is often the case with zoo animals, Peter doesn’t really get to choose who he mates with—and indeed, he’s going to be forced into a relationship with Hazel against his will. Peter actually loves Evelyn, and underwent his transformation from ape to human so they could be together. This passage hints at unequal power dynamics at play: Peter might believe he’s turned himself into a person and therefore, believes he should have rights and agency. But since he is essentially still a zoo animal, he might have less power than he thinks.
Themes
To Hazel, Peter offers his “tale of transformation.” He barely remembers where he was born, but he remembers a boa constrictor gripping him. He doesn’t remember being shot by a hunter. He came to Prague on a ship and appeared onstage with his namesake Peter. Herr Hagenbeck bought him there and then hired Oberndorff to train Peter in Hamburg. Peter then spent a few years in the lab where Hazel is now. Oberndorff was brutal, but his wife, Frau Oberndorff, and the children made up for it. Peter progressed quickly and was soon strolling with Hagenbeck, discussing politics and philosophy. Soon after, he moved to other lodgings and began to speak at the zoo.
Peter clearly had no choice in coming to Europe, or in entering his training with Hagenbeck and Oberndorff. And it’s worth noting that Peter glosses over his years spent in the lab. In his last letter to Evelyn, Peter made it seem like being in the lab was a brutal experience—so by not acknowledging that to Hazel, Peter becomes complicit in whatever abuse Hazel is implied to be experiencing at the moment.
Themes
To answer the question of why he wants Hazel, Peter says he’s needed a companion for some time. Hazel performed well on aptitude tests, so she began her training to become Peter’s wife. There’s also the fact that Hazel will bring Peter “comfort” as his wife. Hagenbeck didn’t think Peter should take a human wife, and the “primitive” chimps at the zoo horrify Peter. Peter’s greatest fear is that, once they’re together, he’ll feel far away from Hazel.
Notably, Peter never says he likes Hazel or genuinely wants to be with her—and to Evelyn earlier, he admitted he doesn’t care about Hazel at all. Rather, their marriage will be one of convenience, one that neither of them actually wants to be in. Peter notes that Hagenbeck was the one to decide who—and what species—Peter would marry, and this arrangement underscores that Peter has very little power and agency over his own life.
Themes
Evelyn writes back to Peter with news that she and Hazel have been going out in public together. Hazel now walks upright and wears shoes, and Hagenbeck feels that Hazel will be ready sooner than expected. She asks if Peter remembers when Evelyn’s oldest child first started to speak. Hazel seems to be in a phase like that, where she voices all her thoughts. Evelyn asks if Peter sent the Chinese man with the copy of Buber’s book of Chinese tales. The man also brought a cricket, which Evelyn gave to Hazel. Evelyn remembers reading Buber with Peter “that night,” and “everything else.”
Though Evelyn continues to share news of Hazel’s progress with Peter, her writing here becomes more intimate. It seems likely that the two are trying to rekindle their relationship—Peter by sending her books that will stir up happy memories, and Evelyn by accepting his advances. And Evelyn’s mention about “that night” and “everything else”—presumably, euphemisms for sex—stands in stark contrast to her descriptions of Hazel as being childlike.
Themes
Hazel’s short letter says that she received a cricket. He looks fierce. According to the man who brought the cricket, he’ll win battles against other crickets if Hazel chops up a fly for him to make him violent. Earlier, Hazel went with Frau Oberndorff to stand in ration lines for food that upset the children’s stomachs. Hazel’s ears have been pierced and she can now pull on stockings without getting runs, but there aren’t stockings anymore.
Hazel’s short, simple sentences reinforce the idea that she’s in a childish place in her development. Her aside about what she can do with her cricket suggests that the cricket isn’t naturally violent, but if people choose to, they can make him that way. Meanwhile, her mentions of standing in ration lines and there being no stockings suggests that she’s feeling the effects of World War I (the story takes place during 1917 in Germany, one of the countries involved in the war).
Themes
Peter writes to Evelyn that he’s thrilled that the book and the cricket have been good distractions. He asks if Hazel understands what’s going on, and he promises to try to explain it in his letter to her. He’s worried about Evelyn and the children and asks if Hagenbeck is helping her find food on the black market. He’d send supplies, but he’s having a hard time finding food himself. The waiters in the hotel dining room give him dirty looks when he comes downstairs to eat, so he’s grateful that he trained himself to not eat much.
It’s clear, in this passage, how differently Peter thinks of Hazel and Evelyn. He talks about Hazel as though she’s a child, which allows Peter to frame himself as a knowledgeable older mentor. Here, Peter is concerned about whether or not Hazel grasps what’s going on in the world with the war. This contrasts with Peter’s worry that Evelyn and her children are getting enough to eat. He cares for their wellbeing, not just that they understand the war. And when he mentions that the waiters give him dirty looks, it brings up one of the book’s main ideas: that during difficult times, animals often bear the brunt of the suffering. Just as Henri in the last story didn’t want to see the cats or dogs eating, the waiters here don’t want to see Peter eating.
Themes
Writing directly to Hazel now, Peter says that she should try to understand what’s happening. The British naval blockade prevents food from coming to Germany via the North Sea. Germany imports about a third of its food, so now the country is in trouble. In addition to the ration lines, there are also strikes and food riots. England is using food as a weapon against the Germans.
Throughout the book, food often symbolizes the power dynamic between people and animals. But here, Peter suggests that people can also use food to exert control over each other. In this sense, people and animals aren’t so different from each other—they all need food to live, and a being or entity with more power can always withhold food.
Themes
Evelyn assures Peter in her next letter that she and the children are fine, but they’re struggling to feed the zoo animals. Earlier, Evelyn’s children stole some food and they celebrated their meal enthusiastically—and of course, they shared with Hazel. Hagenbeck hasn’t been helping and hasn’t been to the zoo in a while. He might be out trying to find food, but Evelyn asks if Peter will remind him of her and of the animals. She prefaces Hazel’s enclosed letter by saying it’s a bit uncouth, but Evelyn has been trying to give Hazel the room to explore language. They’ve been reading The Entropy of Reason, which Hazel loves. Evelyn hopes the letter doesn’t embarrass Peter. Hazel is right about what she can give Peter—things that Evelyn can’t.
As Evelyn describes her family’s difficulties getting food, she again suggests that animals are less deserving of sustenance than people are. She and her children are eating alright—and because Hazel is almost human, she’s eating too. But the zoo animals aren’t eating. And for that matter, describing them simply as “zoo animals” denies them any individuality, as it’s impossible to tell whether they’re chimps, like Peter and Hazel, or some other kind of animal. In any case, they don’t matter as much as the people.
Themes
Hazel asks how they’ll play “bedroom games” when she’s Peter’s wife. Frau Oberndorff is reading The Entropy of Reason to her. In it, Dr. Mitzkin writes that humans will eat words, bathe in words, kill themselves with words, and copulate with words. She asks if Peter will throw words at her when she swings toward him from the curtains, showing him her anus. Will she throw words at him in return? She can’t give him more than a body that’s flexible in pleasant ways. Would he like her to be “more human, or less human, or more or less human”?
Hazel seems to suggest that sex doesn’t require language, or at least not for chimps. But because Hazel and Peter are more human than most chimps, Hazel wonders if that means they’ll have to have sex differently than they might if they were chimps in the wild. Asking what he wants from her suggests that Hazel wants to please Peter and is perhaps more interested in this marriage than Peter is.
Themes
In his response, Peter begs Evelyn to let him visit. He needs to know if she and the children are alright, and she doesn’t need to worry about Hagenbeck finding out. Hagenbeck fled to Africa. Peter supposes it makes sense; Hagenbeck is selfish, and there will always be other apes to train. Peter feels bad for Hazel, but with Hagenbeck gone, Peter doesn’t have to deal with her anymore. He doesn’t have to go along with the “terrible partnership” that Hagenbeck dreamed up. Now, Peter and Evelyn are almost free to do what they want.
In his letter, Peter doesn’t mention Hazel directly at all—he only gestures toward their arranged relationship, or “terrible partnership.” This makes it clear where his priorities lie: with Evelyn, and with people in general. Peter believes that Hagenbeck’s departure frees Peter from his role as a zoo animal. In other words, Peter seems to think that it was Hagenbeck and Oberndorff who didn’t allow him to become fully human by entering into a relationship with a human woman like Evelyn.
Themes
Evelyn, in her response, thanks Peter for the potatoes he sent. She confirms that Hagenbeck went to Africa and transcribes Hagenbeck’s final letter to her. In it, he wrote that rates of starvation in Hamburg are low. His good friend, a professor, just conducted an experiment on himself in which he only ate the food rations of an average person. He lost a third of his weight and couldn’t concentrate, but Hagenbeck knows it’s not hard to find extra food. This is just a way to separate the weak from the strong, and it’s bringing out the nation’s ingenuity. Now, industry has stepped up to engineer edible fats. He then affirms that Germany will prevail. To Peter, Evelyn insists that Hagenbeck will prevail in Africa while they starve in Hamburg. She adds that Hazel wrote this week, but Peter can’t visit. Herr Oberndorff will be on leave soon.
The professor’s experiment suggests that those with wealth believe that it’s not just animals who don’t need to eat during wartime. Poor people without access to food on the black market, the professor seems to believe, also deserve to starve, as this is just part of separating the weak from the strong in a society. But without Hagenbeck’s help, Evelyn now finds herself struggling alongside the city’s poor. Hagenbeck’s choice to flee to Africa suggests that to be human is to be selfish and cruel, both to animals and to other people. But it also seems like Hagenbeck thinks it’s virtuous to make do with little, which could be where Peter got the idea that to be human is to enjoy deprivation.
Themes
Hazel writes that Frau Oberndorff’s hair is losing color. She recently took Hazel and the children to a soup kitchen, where the food smelled awful and the children said it tasted worse. A doctor there pointed out an orphan boy who was missing his teeth due to rickets. The child, the doctor said, was given lots of bread but didn’t improve—and then they found he was hiding bread under his mattress. His “misguided animal instinct” led him to think fearing hunger is worse than actually being hungry. Earlier, Hazel decided to squash and eat a bedbug herself, rather than give it to her cricket.
Hazel implies that she didn’t get to eat at the soup kitchen—since she’s not yet fully human, she perhaps wasn’t eligible for a meal. What the doctor has to say about the starving boy, as well as Hazel’s anecdote about killing a bedbug, suggests that war and famine put people in touch with their animal instincts. Once again, the story suggests that there is little that separates humans from other animals—and in difficult times, when food is scarce, humans and animals become even more alike.
Themes
Peter writes to Evelyn and thanks her for yesterday. He suspects that she would’ve slammed the door on him if the children hadn’t been so happy to see him. Evelyn looks thin, but Peter couldn’t find any black market food for her. As an ape, nobody thinks he should eat when humans are starving. He commends Evelyn for her work with Hazel; Hazel will be fine now. Peter agrees that Hazel should stop her training and wait until Herr Oberndorff gets back. Now, Peter thinks of Hazel as one of Evelyn’s children. Perhaps they could care for her like that in the future. He promises to stay away until after Oberndorff’s visit. The touch of Evelyn’s hand as they said goodbye will sustain him.
Again, as an animal who seems to be struggling more and more to pass for human, Peter finds that people are quick to deny him food. They may have been happy to let him play at being human before the war—but with things so dire and desperate now, they see Peter’s existence and need to eat as a threat to their own survival. The way Peter talks about Hazel as one of Evelyn’s children makes it clear he doesn’t see her as a prospective wife. She will, in his eyes, always be lesser than him—a child rather than a partner.
Themes
Evelyn writes back with disturbing news about Hazel. Hazel found all of Peter’s notes to Evelyn, which were stored in the envelopes along with the letters to Hazel. She can read now, but maybe can’t comprehend. But since reading the letters, Hazel has stopped eating. She also returned to her cage. Hopefully this is just a temporary side effect of hunger. Evelyn asks Peter to not write her until he hears from her again, and apologizes that Hazel chose not to write this week.
While Evelyn has no real way of knowing what Hazel does or doesn’t understand, it seems likely that Hazel knows now that Peter doesn’t actually want her. It’s certainly a shock for her to realize that she’s more of a pawn than she may have already thought—she may have believed that Hagenbeck and Oberndorff cared for her, not just as a proof of concept for their training methods.
Themes
Evelyn writes again with the news that Herr Oberndorff is dead. She won’t miss him, and she’s so hungry it’s hard to grieve. Hazel doesn’t know about Oberndorff’s death yet. They’re out of coal, so there’s no way to heat the lab, and Hazel seems more intent on staying in her cage as it gets colder. Evelyn has cut up some of her husband’s old clothes to make towels, as they were down to one towel for the whole family. Hazel dictated the note below, and Evelyn asks Peter to stay away for a while. Hazel’s note asks if Peter got pork in the recent “Pig Murders.” She heard the pigs were impossibly skinny, and nine million were slaughtered to save everyone from meatlessness. She forgot; Peter doesn’t eat meat.
It's significant that Evelyn says there’s no good way to heat the lab—but she doesn’t say she’s struggling to heat the house, where she and the children live. Again, because Hazel is a chimp and is seemingly becoming more chimp-like every day with her trainer gone, Evelyn may feel less obligated to make sure Hazel is warm. But nevertheless, this passage makes it clear that Hazel isn’t the only one suffering. That Evelyn’s family only had one towel speaks to how difficult the war is for everyone affected.
Themes
Peter writes to Evelyn and apologizes for visiting. He’s not sorry that he took Evelyn in his arms and kissed her. He’s hungry, but only for her. Peter also forgot to apologize for his appearance. His suits were requisitioned recently as part of the decree that men can’t own more than two suits. For the first time in years, Peter is glad to have fur. The war is slowly stripping Peter of everything that made him human. But that’s okay, he writes, as long as he never has to give up Evelyn.
Peter doesn’t say outright, but he implies that the soldiers took all his clothes and didn’t leave him with the two suits that men are allowed to have. This implies that, in the soldiers’ eyes, Peter isn’t human—and so doesn’t get the same level of respect and protection under the law as other men.
Themes
Evelyn responds and thanks Peter for the boots he found for her daughter. Hazel is still fasting and asked Evelyn to charge spectators to watch her starve. But few people come to the zoo anyway—nobody wants to see animals eating, even if it’s just turnip peels. Hazel dictated another note for Peter, and Evelyn fears Hazel is losing her mind. She can’t wait to see Peter tomorrow.
As Evelyn notes, nobody wants to see animals eat, even if it’s just food scraps people would normally discard. Once again, this emphasizes that most people are fully willing to let animals starve if it means humans’ own survival.
Themes
Hazel writes that once, a Hunger Artist entertained people by fasting for 40 days. She asks if Peter remembers him sitting in the zoo. People soon lost interest, and the man whom the Artist had hired to make sure he didn’t eat quit. There’s nothing more ridiculous than an artist who suffers with no audience. The creatures around Hazel aren’t getting food anymore. Does it matter that they’ll all die, whether of disease, exposure, or malnutrition? Hazel will be the only one who chose to starve. Humans aren’t any better than she is. Hazel wonders if all that separates apes and humans is regular hot meals. Now, she finds her thoughts fascinating. She listens to her cricket chirping and hopes humans will heat her up and eat her.
Here, Hazel makes the case that hunger is a powerful equalizer. During wartime, when both people and animals starve due to strict rations and dwindling resources, humans and animals don’t seem so different from each other. And as far as Hazel is concerned, it’s also true that they’re all going to die—and it doesn’t seem to matter how, exactly, unless they essentially choose to die. That choice, she suggests, is what makes her more human than other animals. Hoping humans will eat her, though, speaks to how badly she’s suffering now. To her, it’s preferable to die and feel warm than to stay alive and cold.
Themes
Peter writes to Evelyn. He supposes that it’s safest back in his cage since the authorities chased him from his hotel, but it feels like he’s regressed. He doesn’t have his clothes or his pipe now. Everything stinks like Hazel—or, perhaps, Peter is smelling himself. He’s scribbling this note on a scrap of paper as he waits for Evelyn’s visit, but this letter is useless. His kisses will never reach her. Peter keeps thinking about how Evelyn fed him a spoonful of pumpkin marmalade. She held the spoonful through the bars of the cage and said she wanted to fatten him up. In that moment, Peter knew he made a mistake getting back into the cage. He begs Evelyn to let him out and into her bed.
Here, Peter finds himself trapped in the cage where he once learned to be human. And now that he’s back in the cage, he’s lost everything that made him seem human. He has no clothes or pipe, he stinks like a chimp, and he is seemingly destined to become Evelyn’s dinner. Peter, though, isn’t at fault—Evelyn betrayed his trust and, up until this point, it didn’t seem like Peter had any reason to distrust Evelyn. Peter may toe the line between human and animal, but he shows here that Evelyn is the true monster.
Themes
