The One and Only Ivan Essay Questions

What is Ivan's attitude toward his confinement in the mall? How does that attitude change?

The book begins with Ivan having lived 9,876 days—i.e. 27 years—at the mall. Having lived a solitary life in confinement for so long, Ivan's attitude toward his environment is more or less positive: he enjoys his celebrity status and performs for customers, and he enjoys the food and art supplies he is given. But as the novel progresses, Ivan accesses his memories and comes to terms with the trauma of his capture from the wild and separation from his family. After being transported in a "cramped dark crate that smelled of urine and fear," Ivan was raised by Mack and Helen in their home. Once he grew too large to be a house pet that Ivan was moved to his glass cage at the mall. He realizes through recollection that he hadn't believed he would be confined for such a long time. Once Ivan has the opportunity to live in the open gorilla pasture at the zoo, he needs time to adjust to the idea of living outside his familiar cage. Ultimately, Ivan accesses his true nature and adapts to living among other great apes. He knows he is still confined by high walls, but he feels more at home being able to live in conditions that more closely resemble his early life in the wild.

How does Ivan mature over the course of the novel?

The One and Only Ivan depicts Ivan steadily coming to terms with the mistreatment and poor living conditions to which he and his fellow circus animals have been subjected. Though Ivan is used to being a celebrity and living a lifestyle somewhere between gorilla and human infant, as the narrative progresses, Ivan recalls the traumatizing events that brought him to live in the mall. Having come to this realization, Ivan commits himself to freeing Ruby from the circus, knowing that he must fulfill his promise to save her from the miserable life Stella was forced to live. By the end of the novel, Ivan lives in a habitat that more closely resembles the conditions he would encounter in the wild. After shedding the human habits he has learned, Ivan moves out of his complacency and ignorance to become the proud, mighty, and contented silverback he was meant to be.

How does the first-person narrative voice reinforce the ideas presented in The One and Only Ivan?

The novel's first-person narration hews closer to Ivan's interior world than third-person narration could achieve. His opinions, jokes, perspective, and ideas would feel less authentic if an omniscient narrator described his life. But by narrating the novel in Ivan's voice and perspective, Katherine Applegate is able to capture Ivan's naivety, sincerity, and pride. Often, the reader is more aware of Ivan's circumstances than Ivan is himself: this ironic distance creates humor while simultaneously engendering sympathy for Ivan's limited intelligence. In this way, Applegate forces the reader to imagine what it would be like to be subject to the same inhumane conditions Ivan is forced to accept.

What is the significance of the title The One and Only Ivan?

The novel's title carries an ironic double meaning. While the phrase "one and only" denotes a uniqueness afforded to celebrities, "one and only" has a more melancholy resonance in Ivan's case: as a solitary gorilla living in confinement, torn away from his murdered family, Ivan is the one and only gorilla around. In this way, the title shows the duality of Ivan's identity: though he is proud of the attention he garners as a celebrity gorilla, he is lonely and isolated from his true nature as a mighty silverback who leads a gorilla troop.

The One and Only Ivan takes a critical view of the conditions in which Ivan, Stella, and Ruby are kept at the mall. How is the reader meant to feel about Ivan and Ruby ending up at the zoo?

Early in the novel, Stella explains to Bob what a zoo is, saying that a zoo is "how humans make amends." Stella's attitude is that the zoo is a preferable circumstance to being made to perform as a circus animal. However, once Ivan and Ruby are transported to the zoo, Ivan reflects that he is still living in confinement, though he has access to more space. While Ruby and Ivan are happier to live in open spaces among other animals of their own species, the zoo is still a compromise. Ideally, Ruby and Ivan would not have been poached from the wild in the first place. But after spending enough time living in unnatural conditions created by humans, they have not developed the survival strategies necessary to life in the wild. In this way, zoos reduce the harm done to captured animals while still failing to right the initial wrong of poaching and mistreatment.