The Zoo Story Group

Question:

agilson07
agilson07
Student
College - Freshman

What is the meaning of Jerry's going to the zoo in "The Zoo Story" by Edward Albee?

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Posted by agilson07 on Sunday October 19, 2008 at 10:17 AM and tagged with edward albee, jerry, the zoo story.

Answers:


  1. timbrady Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    For some reason, which is not clear to me, often when life gets chaotic, it's compared to a zoo; how often have we heard "what a zoo!" in these situations.  My experience of zoos is that they are places of order with all the animals in their cages and paths that take us along the way.  Anyway, I think the zoo in this question is being used in the first sense, to stand for the chaos, class warfare and absurdity of life that Jerry has lived through.  Peter has not been to the zoo.  He has money, status, and is involved in an intellectual activity when Jerry exits the zoo and meets him.  Jerry is not going back to the zoo, although we do not know this as the play begins.  He is finished with it and is going to enlist the aid of Peter in finalizing his exit.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/zoo-story/themes

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    Posted by timbrady on Sunday October 19, 2008 at 11:22 AM

  2. awas101
    awas101 Student
    High School - 10th Grade

    The truth is this whole story takes place AT the zoo. The key sentence is when Jerry tells Peter that "youll see it on the news" hes refering to the fact that on the news that night there will be a story on how a man(Jerry)was killed at the zoo(by Peter of course)Therefor Jerry knew he was going to be killed, his goal was to get Peter to kill him and he was succesful. If you take note the story setting is a bench at Central Park. In new york there is a zoo within Central Park hense another clue this story takes place at the zoo.

     

    Hope that helped ~Alex

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    Posted by awas101 on Friday October 16, 2009 at 6:15 PM