The One and Only Ruby

“Anyway, I’m hiding behind this tree because I don’t want to practice. In case you’re wondering. I’m not pouting. I’m protesting.”

In a case of paralipsis, Ruby’s vehemence makes it clear that she is, in fact, pouting, rather than protesting. Ruby’s relative immaturity at this point in the story is reflected in these avoidant behaviors. As Ruby comes of age, she will have to finally face what she’s been hiding from and open up about her tragic past. This vulnerability and honesty allows her to process her complex feelings about her approaching Tuskday ceremony.

“Aunt Laheli cocks her head. Her right eye is golden and large and always smiley. Her left eye is white and blank and doesn’t work anymore. A man at the road-side zoo where she used to live poked it with a stick.”

The motif of The Suffering of Animals comes up in Ruby’s description of Aunt Laheli’s partial blindness, which was caused by the casual and thoughtless cruelty of a man who poked her with a stick. The elephants’ lives before the sanctuary are all variations on the theme of Animal Cruelty and Exploitation. Katherine Applegate includes their backstories to problematize the practice of keeping animals in inhumane conditions and mistreating them for humans’ entertainment. Significantly, Aunt Laheli’s other (seeing) eye is described as “always smiley,” which symbolizes her resilience. She and the other elephants in the elephant enclosure are joyous and positive in spite of the cruelty and trauma they have experienced.

“While we were at the mall, we lost Aunt Stella.”

The Importance of Friendship and Family is alluded to in Ruby’s recollection of her beloved Aunt Stella, who became a mother figure to Ruby. Ruby has mixed feelings about her approaching Tuskday ceremony in part because Aunt Stella cannot be present for this important and symbolic moment; Ruby misses her and wishes that she could have been a part of the herd at the sanctuary.

“It’s a safe place, and they take care of us here. But it’s not a perfect place. It’s not the wild. I guess you could say it’s our not-quite-home-sweet-home.”

Applegate, through Ruby, stresses that animals should ideally be left in their natural habitats. Even though the sanctuary is thoughtfully designed and the animals are lovingly cared for, it is imperfect compared to a life in the wild. Applegate condemns Animal Cruelty and Exploitation, namely here the human practice of removing animals from their habitats for human entertainment.

“I don’t say that other part I’m thinking. How Aunt Stella’s memory is like a different kind of shadow, following me day and night.”

Not wanting to upset Uncle Ivan and Uncle Bob, Ruby does not discuss how acutely she misses Aunt Stella. Her grief is characterized as a shadow that follows her at all times; this simile illustrates how Stella’s death still casts a constant pall of sadness and loneliness over Ruby’s life. Soon Ruby will decide to discuss these feelings of sadness and loss, but for now she is not ready to open up to others.

“‘Don’t sweat it, kid,’ Uncle Bob says. ‘Stella was a great gal. It’s good to talk about folks you miss.’ He sends Ivan a you should listen to me look.”

Bob suggests that his friends should discuss Stella, rather than avoiding talking about her. He understands that we can more easily manage grief when we collectively commemorate and celebrate our lost loved ones. Later Ruby and Ivan will take Bob’s advice, which helps both characters find closure in the wake of Stella’s tragic death.

“Before I fell asleep each night, Aunt Stella always had two questions for me. ‘So,’ she would say, ‘what amazed you today, sweet girl?’”

Unbeknownst to Ruby, Stella begins to induct Ruby into ancient elephant wisdom, which asks elephants to consider what gifts the world has given them each day, and what gifts they have given to the world. Later, at Ruby’s Tuskday ceremony, Ruby thinks lovingly of Aunt Stella, and reflects that she is still with her in her heart, remembered in the lessons she taught her. The Importance of Friendship and Family is signaled here.

“I dream, as I sometimes do, of the bones. I’m all alone on the savanna and they’re gleaming in the moonlight, smooth and white and weirdly beautiful.”

The haunting image of the bones in the moonlight alludes to when Ruby encountered the bones of a tusk-less elephant when she lived on the savanna with her family. This sight is their first intimation of the murderous ivory trade that will later take her mother’s life. That Ruby still dreams of these bones illustrates how haunted she is by the deaths on the savanna at the hands of poachers; her ambivalence about her growing tusks makes sense in light of her past trauma.

“I swallow a sob. ‘I…I don’t know. Seeing Jabori made me happy. But it also made me sad, ’cause I started remembering things.’”

Ruby is forced to confront her distressing and mixed feelings about Tuskday, which are caused by her traumatic past in Africa and then in captivity in America. Her distress is ultimately a good thing, as it leads her to make the mature choice to discuss her emotions about her past with her uncles, which in turn allows her to reflect on and process these emotions. Ruby’s Coming of Age begins here as she starts to navigate her complicated feelings, rather than merely avoiding them through immature means.

“Sometimes I would grab Mama’s tail when we walked. She didn’t mind. She was a great mom, always checking on me, being an elebrella, feeding me whenever I wanted.”

The tragedy of Ruby’s mother’s death is accentuated by the clearly loving relationship between the mother and daughter. Narrative tension builds as Ruby reveals that she spent much of her early life in an orphanage for baby elephants; an approaching tragedy is implicit.

“There’s ‘I feel weak, I’m scared, please, please, find me something, anything. Even a drop will do.’ That last one is the kind of thirst that comes when the rains do not.”

Ruby’s desperation illustrates the severity of the drought that affected the African savanna when she was a baby elephant. Applegate, in her Author’s Note at the novel’s conclusion, suggests that this drought is a direct result of anthropogenic climate change. She uses Ruby’s distress to illustrate the disastrous consequences of unchecked climate change on the world’s animals.

“One shot. Like a crack of thunder. Like a rock split in two. Like a heart breaking. After Mama died, I lay by her side in the blistering sun.”

The violence of the shot that kills Ruby’s mother is emphasized in language that likens it to a crack of thunder or a rock splitting. Furthermore, it is metaphorically likened to the sound of a heart breaking, which speaks to Ruby’s devastation and distress at her mother’s death. The grim prospects for elephant calves whose mothers have been shot by poachers are emphasized in the image of Ruby lying helplessly by her side in the blistering sun. Although Ruby survives, her experience evokes those baby elephants in similar positions who have not been so fortunate.

“I’ve never met a human who understood elephants as well as Jabori, and I doubt I ever will.”

Jabori operates as a literary foil to the other humans Ruby encounters in Africa, most of whom are cruel and ruthless poachers. Instead, Jabori is kind and compassionate. His ability to lovingly care for Ruby is alluded to in his complete understanding of elephants’ needs.

“The orphanage was a special place for baby elephants who’d been found lost and alone. The way it worked was pretty simple. With pretend milk and pretend parents and a pretend life, they were trying to teach us how to survive. But the love was never pretend. Never.”

Applegate, through Ruby’s description of the elephant orphanage, praises the work of real-life institutions like Ruby’s orphanage that provide housing, food, and loving care for baby elephants, while teaching them how to survive. The important work of people like Jabori and institutions like the orphanage he works provides a hopeful foil to the ruthless and cruel poachers who slaughter elephants for their tusks.

“The Fizzle Brothers Family Circus wasn’t really a circus. It was two trailers by the side of the road. A children’s ride that squeaked and spun. It was small tents and sullen humans.”

The depressing nature of the circus is rendered by the imagery of two trailers on a roadside with small tents and an unmaintained ride. Confirming the backward and depressing nature of the circus, the people who visit it are described as sullen, even though they have come there to have fun. Applegate critiques the practice of holding animals captive in inhumane and inadequate enclosures merely for the entertainment of humans; this quote connects to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation.

“Aunt Stella was in a traveling circus for a long, long time. I was only with the Fizzle Brothers for a month.”

The Suffering of Animals, such as Aunt Stella’s implied suffering at the circus, is a motif throughout the novel. Once again, Applegate criticizes the cruel treatment of animals by humans as she explores the theme of Animal Cruelty and Exploitation. Furthermore, Aunt Stella, who is characterized as loving and kind, is additionally characterized as resilient through this allusion to her difficult life before the mall.

“Aunt Stella saved me from sadness. She cuddled me, loved me, promised me life could get better.”

Ruby alludes to The Importance of Friendship and Family in her grateful and loving recollections of Aunt Stella, a maternal figure who played a pivotal role in Ruby’s survival and happiness at the mall. Aunt Stella’s symbolic inclusion in Ruby’s Tuskday ceremony makes sense in light of how important she was in Ruby’s life.

“Then I head to the faraway fence with the not-very-big hole that might just be big enough for a not-very-big elephant.”

Ruby considers running away in order to avoid her Tuskday ceremony, which illustrates that Ruby is still struggling with big and confusing feelings about her ceremony. These feelings have to do with her mother’s death (killed for her tusks) and Stella’s absence. That Ruby is considering running away demonstrates that she still has some maturing to do; she is still engaging in immature and avoidant behaviors.

“‘I hate my tusks,’ I whisper. Aunt Akello touches my back with her trunk, so softly that she could be a moth or a morning breeze. ‘I know, dear one,’ she says.”

Finally, Ruby opens up to Aunt Akello, whispering that she hates her tusks. Aunt Akello, who also lost family through ivory poachers, responds with love and sympathy, suggesting that she has the same complicated feelings about her tusks. Ruby opens up to Aunt Akello with honesty and transparency, which allows Aunt Akello to lovingly comfort and support her. Her brave choice to discuss these complex issues with Aunt Akello marks an important step in her Coming of Age.

“I take a step backward.”

Ruby’s decision to step back into the enclosure to attend her Tuskday ceremony, rather than escaping the enclosure to avoid it, illustrates her newfound maturity and Coming of Age; here she demonstrates a willingness to confront the hard feelings around her Tuskday ceremony, rather than avoiding them as she has done in the past.

“They carve it up into small statues. Even little figurines of elephants, can you imagine? They make pieces for board games. They make fancy boxes. They use tiny shards to make pictures. They make piano keys.”

Aunt Akello underscores the needless tragedy of elephants’ deaths for ivory when she lists the human trinkets that the ivory is used to make. The subtext of this quote about Animal Cruelty and Exploitation is that an elephant’s life, particularly a mother elephant’s life, is worth so much more than these frivolous luxuries.

“I’d never lost her. She was here with me all along.”

As Ruby learns of the two elephant questions at her Tuskday ceremony—what gifts did the world give you today, and what gifts did you give the world?—she realizes that Aunt Stella is with her in her heart and her memories, because Aunt Stella is the one who first taught her to ask these questions. This revelation makes Ruby feel more connected to Aunt Stella and more grateful for the careful way she raised and taught her. This quote illustrates The Importance of Friendship and Family.

“Before we know it, we are sharing Aunt Stella stories until the sun begins to set.”

Ivan, Ruby, and Bob lovingly commemorate their lost friend. This is an important symbolic moment in which the animals are finally able to confront and process their immense grief together, rather than retreating into individual sadness as they have done in the past. Processing grief, Applegate suggests, is an important part of healing after loss.