The Zoo Story Family Quotes

Peter has a family that fulfills all the social norms; he's married to the mother of his children. Jerry sneers at his satisfaction, but part of that sneering seems like it's envy, too. We learn later that Jerry only has one-night stands with women, and that his one passionate relationship was with another boy. There's maybe a suggestion that Jerry is romantically interested in Peter, though he probably wouldn't admit it—he won't even tell us what he did at the zoo, after all.

Jerry figures out that Peter wants to have another child (a son) and that his wife doesn't. Peter, too, has suffering depths, though they may not be quite as traumatic as Jerry's. (Everybody has suffering depths in the Theater of the Absurd—and just in art in general. Batman, Spider-Man, Katniss—suffering depths as far as the eye can see.)

Jerry's sad sadness; two empty picture frames. He puts a bold face on it with his I-don't-care-that-my-mommy-is-dead swagger, but come on. No one put a knife to his nose and said, "tell us about your picture frames!" He did that all by himself, just because he wants Shmoop to pity him. And you know what? It totally worked. Sad picture frames. Sad life.

Mr. Barleycorn? Seriously? She ran away with a Mr. Barleycorn? Is Jerry telling us the true hidden tragedy of his soul, or is he making up a past and family? It's not clear whether the play is using a tragic family to make Jerry a tragic figure, or whether Jerry is deliberately inventing a tragic family to make Peter pity him.

Jerry says he has no feelings he would "care to admit to himself." He's deliberately hiding from his own emotions about his family. Is Peter doing the same? Is this the real life…or is this just fantasy?

Jerry and Peter are talking about the pornographic playing cards. Once you have a family, Peter suggests, you don't need pornography… and maybe not sex either? We're not so sure about that, but we are pretty sure that the cards are seedy and ugly, like Jerry himself—but the alternative seems to be simple domestic boredom. Dull or seedy; those are your options for life in this play, Shmoopers. Choose wisely.

Jerry is not married to two parakeets. Peter is not married to two parakeets, either. Jerry's making fun of Peter's marriage—but you could also see him as accidentally revealing that he would like a different kind of wedded bliss. He's jealous of Peter, which means both that he's jealous of Peter having a marriage and that he's jealous of Peter. Hey, nobody said life was fair.

Peter gets tickled and loosens up and imagines that his family life is more whimsical and goofy than it is. Tickling will do that to you.

Having everything you want, for Jerry, means having a family. But at the same time, a family is a zoo, or a bunch of folks in cages. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, is the message here. (Thanks, Janis.)

Jerry links Peter's family to his manhood; being a father and husband in the socially prescribed way makes you a man. But it also makes you ordinary, boring, unadventurous—and therefore not really a man. Family makes you masculine and also makes you not masculine. Masculinity—it'll get you.