The One And Only Ivan

Ivan returns from the box to his cage—the humans are just acclimating him to the box at this point—and he suggests that Bob sneak into the box and live at the zoo. Bob is sure the plan wouldn’t work, saying, “[H]umans are dumb, but they’re not that dumb” (251).

Ivan tells Ruby that while he’s sure the other elephants will “love you,” he himself doesn’t need love, but “respect” (252). However, he worries that he won’t be able to earn that respect—he hasn’t had “much practice being a real gorilla” (252). Ruby says she’ll finally go in the box the next day, and Ivan says Stella would have approved.

That night, Mack comes in Ivan’s cage and says Ivan is leaving tomorrow. Mack takes out a photo of himself and young Ivan, in a baseball cap, together in Mack’s convertible. Mack reminisces and says, “I’m going to miss you,” and then he walks away without “look[ing] back” (255).

The next morning, Maya and her colleagues arrive to take the animals to the zoo. Ruby is scared, but Ivan encourages her, and soon they’ve taken her box away. When Ivan is about to leave, Bob licks Ivan’s chin, and Ivan calls his friend “the One and Only Bob” (257). He gives Bob the Not-Tag toy “to help you sleep” (258), and Bob takes it and scurries off.

When Ivan enters his box, Maya gives him a drink that makes him fall asleep, and he dreams he’s with Tag and Stella.

Ivan awakens to realize he’s moving, inside “the grumbling belly of some great beast” (260), and then he falls back asleep.

Ivan wakes up in a new cage “much cleaner” (261) than his old one. Maya is there, but he’s worried because he sees no other animals, and his surroundings don’t resemble “the zoos on TV” (261). He’s most concerned about Ruby, wondering who will “tell her stories when she can’t get to sleep” (262).  

Ivan misses his cage, his art, and Bob—Ivan’s “belly” is “cold without him” (263).

Ivan says the food is “fine” in his new cage, but there’s no “soda” or “cotton candy” (264).

Ivan’s only visitors are Maya and the other zoo workers, and he questions whether he’s “stopped being famous” (265).

After an “endless” number of days, Ivan senses something shifting, “like far-off rain clouds gathering” (266).

Maya puts a new TV in Ivan’s cage, one that shows “gorillas being gorillas” (267), eating, playing, and sleeping.

Each day Ivan observes the “odd” gorilla family on his new TV: three females and a young male, “without a silverback to protect them” (268).

Today the humans seem particularly enthusiastic, and Maya “grins goofily” (269) as she pulls a string near Ivan’s cage.

Ivan sees the gorilla family he watched on TV—but now they’re on the opposite side of the glass wall of his cage, “watching me watching them” (269).

Ivan covers and uncovers his eyes, and the gorilla family “are still there” (271).

For days Ivan watches the gorilla family through the glass wall, and they study him as well. Ivan asks himself, “Are they as fascinated by me as I am by them?” (272).

Ivan “admire[s]” a female gorilla named Kinyani, who is quicker and “probably smarter” (273) than Ivan, but not nearly as large as he is. He finds her both “terrifying” and “beautiful, like a painting that moves” (273).

The humans bring Ivan to a door into the gorilla enclosure, but Ivan isn’t “ready to be a silverback” (274), and he doesn’t go through the door.

That night, Ivan wonders if Ruby has already passed through her own door, and if she was scared. He remembers Ruby’s “endless” (275) questions and realizes that her curiosity would have driven her right through her door.

When Maya opens the door again, Ivan remembers Ruby and decides “it’s time” (276).

This chapter consists of a list of aspects of nature—“grass,” “tree,” “cloud,” “flower,” “rock,” and many more—followed by the words: “Mine. Mine. Mine” (277).

Ivan comes close to the other gorillas and even “strut[s] a bit” (278), but the others are suspicious, and Kinyani chases Ivan and throws a stick at him. She’s “testing” Ivan to see if he’s a strong protector, a “true silverback,” and instead of rising to the challenge, Ivan “cower[s]” (278) until Maya guides him back to his cage.

That night, Ivan attempts to remember his life as a gorilla in the wild, hoping to “imagine Ivan as he might have been” (279).

When the young male gorilla comes close to Ivan’s food, Ivan beats his chest and the youngster “retreats” (280). However, Ivan knows he is only “pretending” (280) and is not yet a true silverback.

Ivan makes a too-small, too-fragile nest while the other gorillas “grunt […] their disapproval,” but Ivan still thinks sitting in his nest is “like floating on treetop mist” (281).

Maya leads Ivan back to his cage, although this time he’s reluctant to return. In the cage, he sees something different on the TV: Ruby, playing with two other young elephants, while an older elephant lovingly pets Ruby. Ivan sees “joy” in Ruby’s eyes, and he puts a hand on the glass of his cage, trying to tell Maya “thank you” with his “eyes” (283).

Kinyani touches Ivan’s shoulder and runs away, and Ivan is confused—until he realizes they’re playing tag, and he’s “it” (284).

Ivan is strutting, grunting, and throwing sticks, courting Kinyani—“romance” might appear “easy on TV,” Ivan thinks, but he’s “not sure [he] will ever get the hang of it” (285).

Ivan wishes Bob could advise him on how to woo Kinyani. But even if he’s “not very good” at it, he’s still having “fun trying” (286).

In this brief chapter, Ivan wonders if anything is “sweeter” than another gorilla “pull[ing] a dead bug from your fur” (287).

Ivan tells the other gorillas—whom he now thinks of as “my troop” (288)—about both his life at the mall and his childhood in Africa. Once he finishes, Kinyani comes to him, and they “let the sun soak into our fur. Together” (288).

Workers have been fixing a wall at one end of Ivan’s enclosure, and now that they’re finished, he wants to explore the hill near that wall. He enjoys the sensations of grass and wind, the sight of a tree his sister “would have loved” (289), but still he sees the wall extending into other animals’ habitats. The wall demonstrates that “this is, after all, still a cage”—but at the same time, he notices rich mud, and sees the wall as “an endless blank billboard” (290).

Ivan, “an artist at work” (291), makes pictures on the zoo wall with mud. Once he’s done, he takes a perch in a tree to “admire [his] work” (292). He’s happy to see his “dreamy and wild” (292) painting, like something Julia would create—but he’s even happier to realize that from his higher vantage point, he can see elephants.

Ivan sees Ruby with other elephants, and he knows he’s fulfilled his promise to Stella—Ruby is “safe” (295). He calls out to her, but even though he’s sure he can’t hear her, her ears “spread wide like tiny sails” (295) for a moment, before she walks on.

Late one evening, Julia and George appear at the zoo. Ivan “hoot[s] and grunt[s]” in a “gorilla dance of happiness” (297), until he hears someone telling him to chill out—Bob, hitching a ride in Julia’s backpack. Bob tells Ivan he’s living with Julia and George, and she’s paying for his food by walking dogs. Julia holds up a photo, and though it’s too small for Ivan to see, she explains it’s Ruby living with other elephants—“Because of you” (299). Julia and George gaze at each other “across the expanse that separates us” (300), until Julia leaves while thanking her dad for helping her bring Ivan to the zoo. Bob calls back to Ivan, “You are the One and Only Ivan” (300), and Ivan agrees. As he heads to the gorillas he now considers “my family, my life, my home,” Ivan adds that he is “Mighty Silverback” (300).