The Zoo Story

Not everyone in the world is well mannered, polite, and well civilized. Sometimes people can get positioned in situations where they are never taught these things in life. These people tend to be caught up in social isolation because they do not mix well with others. In the play called, “The Zoo Story” a man named Jerry’s side effects of social isolation shine through as he creates this odd kind of confrontation with another man, named Peter. Although it may seem that Jerry is just some schizophrenic lunatic, that is not the truth at all because his plan throughout the whole circumstance with Peter was to keep his attention long enough to teach Peter some life lessons and in the conclusion of their time together, die like his parents did.
In “The Zoo Story”, Jerry tries to form a relationship between himself and Peter by asking numerous questions concerning his personal life in order to make an accurate comparison so that Jerry could decide what lessons taught Peter could most benefit from.   Jerry looks as if he compares his relationship to Peter to the authors Marquand and Baudelaire. Charles Baudelaire is similar to Jerry in the sense that he was more scandalous and lower class, as John Phillips Marquand can compare to Peter because he was socially appealing and higher class. Jerry and Peter both live near Central Park, yet on opposite sides. Thus they live in a similar area, which may have been a factor in Jerry choosing to talk to Peter of all people. Jerry seems to have ADHD, because of the way he asks questions yet does not always wait for an answer, but keeps moving on also to keep his attention. It seems Jerry’s view of the world is a little tarnished because of his troubles from his young life and the troubles that continued through his adult life. Every detail in his life and every that he does contributes to how is as a person, you can see the effects of his actions and how it effects his whole situation. Some readers believe that Peter will go away... [continues]

Read full essay