Part one of term paper
Jean Stafford's "In the Zoo" is a short story that cleverly uses animals to further develop the human characters. Each human character in the short story has his/her own personality likeness bestowed upon an animal. The human characters are complex and well drawn out, each having an individual personality niche in the social environment th ...

Part two of term paper
... transforms the sweet dog Laddy into the viscous watchdog Caesar. Early on in the zoo, the narrator depicts the sad polar bear as being like "Mr. Murphy". The reader cannot assess this statement until he/she discovers later on who Mr. Murphy is, but upon learning his identity, a greater understanding of him is achieved due to his polar bear correlation. These are a few examples of how animals are used throughout the novel to mold the reader's understanding of the human character they correspond ...