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Red Peter
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.
Hazel Quotes in Only the Animals
The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Hazel or refer to Hazel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Red Peter’s Little Lady: Soul of Chimpanzee Quotes
They—the humans, that is—seem to think that what sets them apart from other animals is their ability to love, grieve, feel guilt, think abstractly, et cetera. They are misguided. What sets them apart is their talent for masochism. Therein lies their power. To take pleasure in pain, to derive strength from deprivation, is to be human.
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Frau Oberndorff gave me a pet cricket. The cricket lives in a walnut shell. If you hold him up and look at him directly, he looks fierce. The man who brought the cricket to the zoo said he would win battles against other crickets if we first chop up a fly and feed it to him to make him violent.
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Hazel Character Timeline in Only the Animals
The timeline below shows where the character Hazel appears in Only the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Red Peter’s Little Lady: Soul of Chimpanzee (Died 1917, Germany)
...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,...
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To Hazel, Peter writes that he chose her name years ago because of her eye color. His...
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...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.
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A note from Evelyn accompanies Hazel’s reply; Hazel dictated her reply to Evelyn. Evelyn writes that Hazel is improving quickly, though...
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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...
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In the letter to Hazel, Peter is glad that she’s embracing his “healthful German body culture.” He warns her not...
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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...
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In her letter to Peter, Hazel writes that the zoo is noisy. She’s itchy, but Frau Oberndorff won’t let her scratch....
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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...
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To Hazel, Peter offers his “tale of transformation.” He barely remembers where he was born, but he...
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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,...
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Hazel’s short letter says that she received a cricket. He looks fierce. According to the man...
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...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...
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Writing directly to Hazel now, Peter says that she should try to understand what’s happening. The British naval blockade...
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...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...
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Hazel asks how they’ll play “bedroom games” when she’s Peter’s wife. Frau Oberndorff is reading The...
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...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...
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...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.
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Hazel writes that Frau Oberndorff’s hair is losing color. She recently took Hazel and the children...
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...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...
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Evelyn writes back with disturbing news about Hazel. Hazel found all of Peter’s notes to Evelyn, which were stored in the envelopes along...
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...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...
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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...
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Hazel writes that once, a Hunger Artist entertained people by fasting for 40 days. She asks...
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...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...
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