110 pages • 3 hours read
Peter BrownThe Wild Robot
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Ocean”
A cargo ship sinks during a hurricane. Hundreds of crates containing new robots sink to the bottom of the ocean. Five crates stay afloat and make it to land, but four are smashed on the rocky shore. Only one crate survives.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Otters”
A group of curious otters finds pieces of damaged robots. They play with robot body parts in the tidal pools. The otters come upon the surviving box and see the undamaged robot inside. As they play with the packing materials, one otter accidentally pushes a button on the robot’s head. The robot’s eyes open.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Robot”
The robot’s computer brain boots up and she speaks. “Hello, I am ROZZUM unit 7134, but you may call me Roz” (7). Roz explains that she can complete tasks, communicate, and learn. She is fully activated.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Robot Hatches”
The story’s narrator comments that robots do not feel emotions in the way animals do, but Roz feels something like curiosity about her surroundings. Roz feels her body absorbing the energy of the sun. When her battery is full, Roz pulls apart her crate and climbs out.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Robot Gravesite”
The otters peek from behind a rock and see the sparkling robot emerge from the crate. Roz’s head turns all the way around until she sees the otters. She greets them. “Hello, otters, my name is Roz” (10). The terrified otters race away.
Roz sees the broken robot body parts and stomps over to them. She sees the word ROZZUM etched on each torso, like that on her own torso. A big wave knocks her down and her damage sensors flare. Her “survival instincts” program urges her to move away from the ocean. Roz decides that the land above the sea cliffs looks safe.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Climb”
Roz finds climbing the cliffs difficult. She falls and dents herself repeatedly. She encounters a crab and introduces herself to it. The crab moves away and Roz notices how it easily moves over the rocks. She copies its climbing technique and makes it to the top of the cliff.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Wilderness”
The forest animals fall silent as they watch Roz from their hiding places. They think she is a monster. Rocks, fallen trees, and underbrush make walking difficult for Roz. She falls and gets dirty. Because she is programmed to keep herself in good working order, she cleans the dirt off herself. Roz finds a flat, open piece of ground that seems safe, so she stands there motionless.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Pinecones”
A pinecone bounces off Roz’s head. It seems harmless, so she does not move. Hours later, a howling wind tears through the treetops and pinecones rain down on Roz. She feels annoyed and looks up at a mountain towering above the forest, which seems safe from the pinecones.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Mountain”
Roz hikes to the mountain and sees there are no trees at the top, so she climbs to the highest point. She can see ocean all around and realizes she is on an island. She sees a river, a great meadow, and forest. She sees various animals all over the island. She is a new kind of life there, artificial life.
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Reminder”
The narrator reminds the reader that Roz has no idea how she came to be on the island. She does not know that she was built in a factory or that she had been in a cargo ship that sank. She does not know that the otters accidentally activated her. Roz does not know that she does not belong on the island.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
These first chapters introduce the main character of the story, Roz the robot. Her name comes from her model name and number, ROZZUM unit 7134. The story is told in third person by a narrator, who refers to Roz as “she,” though as a robot Roz technically has no gender. This is because the name “Roz” is generally a female name.
Some of Roz’s actions are automatic, such as how she introduces herself to every living thing she encounters. She informs the otters that she can communicate and learn how to improve her performance: “Over time, I will find better ways of completing my tasks. I will become a better robot” (7). Roz is a sophisticated robot rather than one that has been programmed to perform the same simple task over and over, like an assembly line robot.
Since Roz is activated accidentally on the island where her crate washed ashore, she has no “owner” to tell her what to do. Left to her own choices, Roz must decide how to follow her basic programming. Roz appears hardwired to protect herself, which makes her avoid being submerged under the ocean waves: “Roz could feel her Survival Instincts—the part of her computer brain that made her want to avoid danger and take care of herself so she could continue functioning properly” (11). With no one to tell her where to go, Roz decides on her own to seek a safer place.
Roz demonstrates herself to be very adaptable and capable of learning by example, as shown when she learns how to climb the cliffs by watching the crab. Once she has reached the top, she finds a spot and stays there, since she has not been assigned any tasks: “It seemed like a safe place, and safety was all the robot really wanted, so she stood there, motionless, all perfect lines and angles set against the irregular shapes of the wilderness” (18). This last passage shows how foreign Roz is in her surroundings, a mass-produced object with manufactured contours, in contrast with the natural, variable forms of the wilderness around her. The animals who see her have no idea what she is and think she is a monster. This passage introduces a major theme of the story, the contrast between the natural and artificial world.
In the last chapter of this section, the narrator offers a reminder that Roz is discovering things that the reader already knows, such as the fact that Roz is on an island after having been in a ship that sank during a hurricane. Roz’s “memory” only extends to the point at which the otter switched her on, so she does not know that the island was not meant to be the place where she was activated: “As far as Roz knew, she was home” (24). The concept of a robot having a home is atypical, as robots do not have feelings, which further establishes the sense that Roz is not a stereotypical robot.
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