Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The One and Only Ivan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Animal Abuse and Human Cruelty
Kindness
Art and Self-Expression
Memory and Storytelling
Family, Friendship, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
the promise. Ivan wakes in the middle of the night to Stella calling for him. He runs to the wall they share, and Stella asks Ivan to promise her something. She says that she’s never asked anyone to promise anything, since promises are forever—and forever is even longer when one lives in a cage. Ivan reminds her that she’s in her domain and says that he promises. Stella points out that Ivan doesn’t even know what she’s asking for yet, and then says that it’s silly to ask for anything. Ivan surprises himself and says that Stella wants him to protect Ruby. Wincing, Stella nods. Stella says that she wants Ruby to grow up somewhere safe, not here. Ivan knows that it’d be easier to stop being a gorilla than to keep this promise, but he promises anyway.
Stella is finally willing to admit that she lives in a cage and not a “domain.” Using a more accurate word to describe her situation suggests that Stella has finally decided to accept how poorly Mack has cared for her at the mall. And this, it seems, is what motivates Stella to ask Ivan to try to get Ruby somewhere else, where she can live a better life than Stella did. It’s a mark of how much Ivan cares for Stella that he promises, even though he doesn’t believe he can keep the promise. Nevertheless, this might give Stella some needed comfort in this difficult time.
Themes
knowing. Ivan knows before anyone else that Stella is dead. It’s just a thing he feels. He recalls that once, Stella had teased him that elephants are better than gorillas because they feel more emotions. She’d said that gorilla hearts are made of ice. Now, Ivan would give anything, even yogurt raisins, for his heart to be made of ice.
It's impossible to say whether gorillas or elephants feel more emotions, but the fact remains that Ivan is still grieving Stella’s passing. He’s not the dangerous, powerful beast that the billboard makes him out to be—he has friends he cares about deeply, and he grieves just like a human might.
Themes
five men. According to Bob, who heard it from a rat, it took five men and a forklift to get Stella’s body into a garbage truck.
Dumping Stella’s body into a garbage truck with a forklift reads as callous and disrespectful. This is perhaps an indicator of how little Mack cares to honor Stella.
Themes
comfort. Ivan tries to comfort Ruby all day, but he’s not sure what to say. It’s not true that Stella had a happy life, or that she lived like she was supposed to. At least it’s true that she died surrounded by those who loved her most.
Ivan doesn’t want to lie to Ruby about Stella’s quality of life, even if it might make Ruby feel better in the moment. This also shows readers how they should look at Stella’s life and death: she wasn’t supposed to live in the mall, so she wasn’t happy.
Themes
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crying. That evening, Julia cries while George cleans. Ivan watches George confront Mack and hears a few words, like “vet” and “should have.” Mack says nothing and leaves. Ivan notices that George is crying when he cleans Ivan’s glass.
Mack doesn’t seem to have any excuse for Stella’s death, since he doesn’t respond to George’s confrontation. Seeing this interaction shows Ivan that George cares more for the animals than Mack does.
Themes
the one and only ivan. When the humans have left the mall, Ivan sends Bob to check in on Ruby. Bob returns and says that Ruby was shivering, so he tried to put some hay on her. He also told Ruby that Ivan was going to save her. Ivan glares, but Bob says he just wanted to make Ruby feel better—and Ivan promised Stella. Ivan says he shouldn’t have made the promise, since he can’t save Ruby or himself, then he flops onto the cement and notices that it hurts. Leaping onto Ivan’s belly, Bob notes that Ivan is the One and Only Ivan, Mighty Silverback. He tells Ivan to repeat the words. Bob licks Ivan’s chin and nose until Ivan complies. Looking up, Ivan notices that the moon, which Stella loved, is covered by clouds.
It’s unclear here if Bob thinks he’s telling Ruby the truth, or if he’s just trying to reassure her. Ivan, though, implies that he can’t keep his promise to Stella, suggesting that he only made the promise to ease Stella in her final hours. It’s also telling that Ivan seems suddenly aware of how the cement hurts—having lost a good friend, his captivity is starting to wear on him and become more difficult to bear.
Themes
once upon a time. Ruby spends the night moaning and crying. Ivan stays awake in case she needs something, even though Bob encourages him to get some rest. After a while, Ruby calls for Ivan. She sobs that she misses Stella, her mom, and her sisters. She asks Ivan if he knows any stories and asks for one about Ivan when he was little. Ivan says that Stella was the storyteller, and he doesn’t remember. Bob adds that Ivan doesn’t remember much, so he’s the opposite of an elephant. Ruby sniffles and turns away. Ivan listens to her cry and then starts a story. He tries to remember.
Ivan may feel like he can’t do much in his current situation to help Ruby, but he nevertheless shows her that he cares by staying awake—and, at the end of the passage, he makes a concerted effort to remember his past. Telling Ruby his story will help the two connect and figure out what they have in common, aside from their current living situation.
Themes
the grunt. Ivan says he was born in a rainforest in a place that humans call central Africa. Gorillas, he explains, don’t name newborns right away like humans do. His parents named his sister Tag after she started chasing Ivan around the forest. Ivan loved playing tag with Tag. They’d chase each other and then jump on their father until he grunted to tell them to stop. To Ivan and Tag, the game never got old.
Ivan implies here that naming a baby at birth means that they’re going to grow into a certain identity, helped along by their name. But for gorillas, this isn’t how it’s done—rather, parents try to figure out who their babies are before naming them. Ivan suggests that this gives gorilla babies a better chance at being who they truly are.
Themes
mud. Soon, Ivan’s parents named him too. He’d spend all day drawing with sap, fruit juice, and mud. They named him Mud—and to Ivan, his name was everything.
This passage shows that Ivan has truly been an artist his entire life—his original name made it clear that his artistry is essential to his identity.
Themes
protector. Ivan says that his family was just like all the other gorilla families—it was a family of 10, and they were mostly happy. Ivan’s father was everything a silverback should be: he was a protector and a teacher. Nobody, according to Ivan, could “chest beat” like his father could.
Ivan holds his father up as an example of what a silverback should be—and, by extension, Ivan suggests that he should be more like his father. But in Ivan’s current captive circumstances, he’s not able to be a silverback the same way his father was, as he doesn’t have a gorilla family to protect.
Themes
a perfect life. Gorilla babies aren’t so different from other babies, except they ride on their mother’s back. As time goes on, baby gorillas learn adult skills, like how to build nests and be kind and loyal. Growing up as a gorilla is the same as growing up as anything else: you make mistakes and learn. For a while, Ivan says, life was perfect.
Ivan makes the case here that many aspects of growing up and becoming an adult are universal: young people and animals learn the skills they need to survive, and they learn how to treat others with kindness and compassion. Humans and animals, he suggests, aren’t so different.
Themes
the end. One day, the humans arrived.
The fact that this statement is its own section is ominous. It suggests that these humans weren’t good, and that their arrival was devastating for Ivan and his family.
Themes
vine. The humans captured Ivan and Tag and put them in a crate “that smelled of urine and fear.” Ivan knew that to survive, he had to let his old life go. Tag couldn’t forget, though. One day, Tag looked at Ivan, and Ivan knew that she’d finally let go of her old life.
Ivan shows here why he’s so unwilling to remember his past: he attributes Tag’s death to her unwillingness to forget. In other words, he seems to have learned from Tag that repressing memories is a way to protect himself.
Themes
the temporary human. Eventually, Mack opened the crate, bought Ivan, and raised him like a human. Ivan did everything human babies do: he wore diapers, drank bottles, and broke things. Mack’s wife, Helen, got angry when Ivan broke things, including his crib, lamps, a couch, glassware, a blender, a TV, and his own toes. Mack and Helen took Ivan to a fast-food restaurant every weekend. They also went to movie theaters and the circus. Ivan thinks of his life as a human as being “glamorous,” though he knows that his parents wouldn’t have liked it.
It's possible to see the way that Mack raised Ivan as positive and caring, especially compared to what happened to Tag. Indeed, Ivan notes that he lived a pretty luxurious life—and he again makes it clear that human babies and gorilla babies aren’t so different, as they all get into trouble sometimes. Living with Helen’s anger, though, seems to have taken a toll on Ivan, showing that Ivan hasn’t always lived peacefully with humans.
Themes
hunger. Ivan says he was well cared for in his new life as a human. He had access to all sorts of foods, but it’s possible to be hungry for other things—like his family or another gorilla to groom him. He reminded himself to not think about the jungle so he wouldn’t end up like Tag, but he’d still lie awake at night and wish for another gorilla to lie with.
Again, through Ivan’s story, he makes it clear why he’s worked so hard to forget his past: he believes that dwelling in the past is going to kill him, as it killed Tag. But this belief doesn’t always get rid of the desire to be with another gorilla, showing that forgetting still has its limits.
Themes
still life. One day, Helen came home with a painting of fruit in a bowl. She called it a still life. Ivan thought it was beautiful and reached out to touch a grape. Helen slapped his hand away. As Helen and Mack hung the painting in the living room, Ivan found a frosted chocolate cake in the kitchen. Rather than eating it, Ivan touched the frosting. It was like mud. He painted the white refrigerator with handfuls of the frosting. Ivan didn’t care that he’d get in trouble. He just wanted to be an artist.
Helen’s still life is, perhaps, the inspiration behind Ivan’s drawings of things in his domain. Just as the still life depicts real-life fruit, Ivan’s drawings in the novel’s present depict the actual things he in his space. This passage also shows how important Ivan’s identity as an artist is to him—so important that he didn’t care if painting with frosting would get him in trouble.
Themes
punishment. After this event, Ivan wasn’t allowed in the kitchen again.
Keeping Ivan out of the kitchen might keep Helen’s fridge clean, but it also keeps Ivan from being the artist he wants to be.
Themes
babies. Ivan explains that the Big Top Mall was smaller back then. Things changed when Mack brought Ivan to the mall, dressed in a tuxedo. People came from all over to take pictures with him. Once, Ivan got to hold a human baby. Ivan and the baby made faces and grunted at each other. Ivan was afraid that he’d drop the baby, so he held her tightly—but the baby’s mother snatched her back. Now, Ivan wonders if his own mother worried about dropping him and Tag. He thinks human babies are ugly, but human babies have the same eyes as gorilla babies: “too big for their faces, and for the world.”
This section explains why Mack is so certain that a baby animal will save the mall—baby Ivan did once. Here, it becomes clear how easy it is for humans and animals to misunderstand one another. Readers know that Ivan isn’t trying to hurt this baby by squeezing her. But to the baby’s mother, it’s hard to trust that Ivan has her baby’s best interests at heart when they can’t communicate.
Themes
beds. Ivan says that after weeks of “loud talking,” Helen packed her things and left the house. She didn’t come back, and Ivan doesn’t know why she left. But that first night, Ivan slept with Mack. Though the bed was flat and didn’t have sticks or leaves, Mack still rumbled in his sleep like Ivan’s father used to.
There may be many differences between humans and gorillas, but Ivan shows here that they can nevertheless comfort each other. Having Ivan close to him presumably offered Mack some comfort after Helen left.
Themes
my place. Over time, Mack became sullen. On the other hand, Ivan became what he’s supposed to be: “too big for human life.” Though he tried to be calm, dignified, and dainty, it was hard to act like a human. So, Ivan was thrilled when he saw his domain. There wasn’t furniture to break—and it had a tire swing. The domain was a relief, though Ivan didn’t realize then that he’d be here so long. Now, Ivan says, he eats old apples and watches TV. But a lot of the time, he forgets what he’s supposed to be. He’s not sure if he’s a human or a gorilla. Humans have more words than they need, but there’s no word to describe what Ivan is.
Ivan acknowledges that his life hasn’t been all bad. He suggests that it’s silly to expect that he would be able to actually live his life among humans, but he also makes it clear that his domain has fundamentally altered who he is and how he sees the world. And though Mack probably didn’t mean to cause Ivan such an identity crisis by raising him as a human and then shutting him up in a cage, this is nevertheless what has happened. The novel frames this as cruel, if casually and unintentionally so.
Themes
nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-six days. Ivan watches Ruby and Bob sleep, but his mind is racing. He’s remembering his past for the first time. He realizes his story is odd, with an “endless middle.” Ivan notes that he’s counted every day he’s lived with humans—gorillas are good counters, though it’s not an important skill in the wild. Even though Ivan has forgotten a lot of things, he never forgets how long he’s been in his domain. Grabbing one of Julia’s Magic Markers, Ivan makes an X on his wall for every day he’s spent with humans. It takes all night to draw 9,876 of them.
The simple fact that Ivan has kept a count of how many days he’s been in his domain makes it very clear that living in captivity has been unpleasant, as much as Ivan tries to ignore that fact. The number of days he’s been in his domain essentially represents how long Ivan has been trying to survive in a situation that keeps him from being who he really is: a silverback gorilla and an artist.
Themes
a visit. Before dawn, Mack walks unsteadily to Ivan’s domain. He smells odd and has red eyes. He mumbles and says that he and Ivan have been through a lot.
Mack might be responsible for Stella’s death because he neglected her, but this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t feel guilty about it. His odd smell and red eyes suggest that he’s trying to cope by turning to alcohol.
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