Summary
One night Ivan displays his paintings for Julia, pulling the pictures out of Not-Tag. But before Julia understands what the separate pieces of art mean, George says it’s time to go home. Ivan panics and pushes them through the window crack. Julia arranges the paintings into a stack and comments that Mack will want to sell them in the gift shop. George says he doesn’t understand why anyone would want to buy the paintings, which just look like blobs. They decide to leave the stack of paintings by Mack’s office. Ivan presses his face against the glass, mourning his lost work and effort. He looks at Ruby sleeping and thinks that he can’t let her be another One and Only.
To get Julia and George’s attention, Ivan thumps his chest and screeches and bounces off the walls. He is using his anger because he has someone to protect. They drop the pictures in alarm and Julia sees them laid out on the floor. An hour passes as Julia and George arrange the pictures to see what Ivan is communicating. Julia sees that he has spelled Home, and made pictures of Ruby and a zoo. She recognizes the zoo logo, which Ivan has copied from TV ads. George is incredulous at first, but soon he can’t deny it.
It dawns on Julia that the pictures are meant to be displayed on the billboard. George, however, is reluctant: he doesn’t want to risk his job, and he doesn’t believe it will help save Ruby. But Julia presses him, and says it’s a matter of principle. Finally, George concedes and takes the ladder from the storage closet.
In the morning, Ivan watches Mack slam his car to a halt in the parking lot. He leaps out, jaw wide, and stands looking at the billboard. He comes in furious, turning over tables and breaking the cotton-candy machine. However, his mood shifts after he receives a call from a journalist Julia had contacted. The journalist is asking about Ivan. Mack says the journalist can come and take pictures, and says it was his idea to have Ivan make pictures. An hour later the journalist arrives and takes a photo of Mack with his arm around Ruby.
A photo of the billboard makes it into the newspaper. More customers arrive and Ivan is busy at work making art for Mack to sell for sixty-five dollars, with frame. Ivan becomes known as the Ape Artist and the Primate Picasso. Eventually, the animals are featured on The Early News at Five O’Clock.
Footage of Ruby’s chains and the claw-stick Mack uses to intimidate her draw angry animal-rights protesters to the mall. Soon a man with a clipboard arrives to inspect the property. Mack scowls at the man. The man returns with a woman in a white coat; they give Mack a piece of paper and he covers his face, then slams the door to his office.
The white-coated woman returns with a large box for Ruby to go into. She puts an apple inside as enticement. Ruby obeys the woman’s gentle clicks and enters the box. Ivan tells Ruby that the box is her way out. Ruby doesn’t understand. Ivan says the red giraffe on the box means the box belongs to the zoo, where the white-coated woman is from. But even though there may be more elephants at the zoo, Ruby is reluctant to leave Ivan and Bob and Julia.
The lady in the white coat returns with an animal doctor who carries a dangerous-looking bag. Ivan wakes from a long nap and Bob explains that the animal handlers have brought in boxes. There is a box for Ivan. Ivan remembers that the last time he was in a box, his sister died.
Analysis
Ivan is nervous as he attempts to deploy his plan to communicate his desire to go home. When Julia and George are unable to put the puzzle of pictures together, he momentarily succumbs to the human habit of despair. However, his animal instinct rises past his learned human ways and Ivan accesses his silverback anger, having realized that he is not alone; he has Ruby to protect.
His anger communicates to Julia that something is wrong and she understands that the dropped pictures come together to form a whole. The zoo’s red giraffe logo signals to her that Ivan is communicating that he would like Ruby to go to the zoo.
The sight of the altered billboard provokes Mack’s anger, but his greed leads him to believe media attention will bring more customers and therefore profits. However, increased media scrutiny of Mack’s animal mistreatment and footage of the claw stick bring protesters to the mall.
In an instance of dramatic irony, we see people come in to evaluate the poor conditions the animals are being kept in. A man serves Mack a paper that Ivan doesn’t understand, but that the reader can ascertain is a notice of circus closure and animal seizure by the zoo.
Even though positive changes are underway, Ivan and Ruby don’t know what exactly is happening, as they have become habituated to life in captivity at the mall. The dangerous-looking bag Ivan sees in the hand of the animal doctor is full of tranquilizers that allow the animal handlers to sedate the animals while bringing transport boxes into their cages. Ivan’s trauma arises as he considers how the last time he went in a transport box, his sister died.
