Not many people can say that they grew up alongside a chimp. In We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, main character Rosemary’s chimp sister Fern has an enormous effect on her life. Although Fern is only in Rosemary’s life for a short period of time in her childhood, the chimp impacts Rosemary deeply and brings out her animalistic qualities. Even as an adult, Rosemary behaves in inappropriate, “monkey-like” behaviour, as Fern would. Instead of addressing the problems she is faced with, she acts impulsively, just like an animal. Rosemary acts animalistic in social settings, because by behaving this way, she believes this will give her the attention she has always longed for.
Rosemary begins showing signs of chimp-like behaviour before the …show more content…
She states, “I couldn’t not see how I’d been put, drugged, into a cage just the way she’d once been put, drugged, into a cage … Also like Fern, I was not alone in my cell” (173). Lying in her bed in her jail cell, Rosemary cannot help but relate her own experience to Fern’s. The reader can see that Rosemary still feels a deep connection to her chimp sister. And even long after Fern leaves Rosemary’s life, she still has a deep effect on the way Rosemary behaves. For example when Rosemary is in the jail cell with two other women, she does not stop talking and behaving abnormally. Harlow responds to this behaviour by saying, “Will you shut up? Do you even know you’ve been talking all fucking night? And making no sense at all?” (175). Rosemary then states, “I responded to this with an odd mixture of monkey-girl alarm and nostalgia” (175). In this scene, Rosemary is talking but is unaware of what she is talking about. Instead, she is impulsively saying anything that comes to mind, and according to Harlow, making ‘no sense at all’. Rosemary tends to act out when she is in uncomfortable situations, just as an animal would. By doing this, Rosemary believes that she will get the attention that she has always strived
Rosemary begins showing signs of chimp-like behaviour before the …show more content…
She states, “I couldn’t not see how I’d been put, drugged, into a cage just the way she’d once been put, drugged, into a cage … Also like Fern, I was not alone in my cell” (173). Lying in her bed in her jail cell, Rosemary cannot help but relate her own experience to Fern’s. The reader can see that Rosemary still feels a deep connection to her chimp sister. And even long after Fern leaves Rosemary’s life, she still has a deep effect on the way Rosemary behaves. For example when Rosemary is in the jail cell with two other women, she does not stop talking and behaving abnormally. Harlow responds to this behaviour by saying, “Will you shut up? Do you even know you’ve been talking all fucking night? And making no sense at all?” (175). Rosemary then states, “I responded to this with an odd mixture of monkey-girl alarm and nostalgia” (175). In this scene, Rosemary is talking but is unaware of what she is talking about. Instead, she is impulsively saying anything that comes to mind, and according to Harlow, making ‘no sense at all’. Rosemary tends to act out when she is in uncomfortable situations, just as an animal would. By doing this, Rosemary believes that she will get the attention that she has always strived