Fern In The Cook Home Summary

Because of Fern’s ability to create close, surprising, and mutual relationships with humans, it can be seen that Fowler intends to show that chimpanzees are capable of a social and compassionate identity comparable to that of humans’. Fern did not meet the expectations of the scientific community when she formed close bonds with the Cookes and the rest of the apes in the habitat. Fern formed such close bonds with her human family, so close that she rejected her own species, delicately calling them “crawling shit” (101). Such a close relationship between two different organisms is indicative of the lack of differences between their inherent natures. The compatibility of Fern in the Cooke household shows that chimpanzees are human enough to be able to form meaningful relationships with humans. Fowler often iterates the favoritism of the family towards Fern in passages such as “I think that Fern has gotten praise for nothing and that I can never get praised for nothing.

As much as the family shows favoritism and affection towards Fern, Fern returns the same deep bond. “I [Lowell] hit my head and things went a bit sideways for me. Fern had my hand inside the cage, inside her mouth, but she hadn’t bitten me yet. I think she couldn’t decide if she was more happy to see me or more angry” (207). Fern’s reaction is a passionate one, towards someone who she has a deep relationship with. If she did not at least form some sort of bond with Lowell, Rosemary’s brother, she would have just ignored him or treated him the same as all the other people in the animal testing lab. From the desperate clinging on to her previous life, Fern is later seen developing relationships with other chimpanzees that defy pre-established scientific