We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Rosemary, Lowell, Ezra, and Fern all spend time behind bars in this story. There is one major difference, which is that Fern’s enclosure is called a cage and considered necessary, while the others’ enclosure is called prison and is generally considered a temporary punishment. This symbolizes the way that humans treat both people who are considered socially deviant and nonhuman animals as second and third-class citizens; animals are not even allowed the luxuries that “deviant” humans are allowed in prisons. Lowell immediately understands that calling something a cage rather than a prison is a semantic difference, deciding that he needed to find Fern the minute he learned that she was being held in a cage and later, deciding to be tried in court as a nonhuman animal. Both times that Rosemary ends up in jail are a result of her letting go of her control and rationality, letting her instinct and “monkey-girl” side take over. After her second stint, she thinks: “The monkey-girl had made another unscheduled appearance, and it had landed her in jail again. When would she learn to behave with restraint and decorum” (183). Ezra and Lowell are both incarcerated for their efforts to free nonhuman animals from inhumane treatment; notably, neither of them hurt any people or animals.