Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Oral Presentation Guidelines

For the final oral presentation you will get into pairs and prepare to speak on the following discussion prompts:

1. Storytelling: Discuss how the story is told. “Start in the middle” (2), Rosemary’s father tells her. Why does he ask her to do this? What about the novel itself, why is starting the story in 1996 with the cafeteria fight scene useful? Instead of being introduced to the family when the children are little, we see them as young adults without that background knowledge of their relationship. Almost halfway into the novel, Rosemary tells us "Now that you know me better, let's take a second look at that first encounter" between her and Harlow (136). How does the timing of when information is given affect your understanding of characters and events?
2. Rosemary: Discuss the character Rosemary Cooke. Explain her change from a talkative child into a quiet young woman. What impressions of her do you have in the opening cafeteria scene? How do these impressions compare to your perception of her once her “monkey girl” background is revealed? What makes her a good kindergarten teacher? Throughout the story, we see her loving Fern, jealous of Fern, then guilty about Fern. How else do her views toward Fern change? Does she change her mind about other characters or about herself as well after she learns about their experiences?
3. Lowell: In what way is Lowell Cooke an important character in the story? The thirty-year-old Lowell exclaims, “What a miserable excuse for a brother I turned out to be” (218). Do you think he has been a good brother to Fern and Rosemary? Has he been a good son? Rosemary feels he is “traumatized” or “unstable” (227). Do you think Lowell is insane? Explain his behavior of not saying “a single word” after he has been arrested finally (305).
4. Language: What questions and ideas about language and communication does the novel provoke us to think about? Fowler mentions in an interview, “Who talks and who doesn’t? Who is heard and who isn’t? What can be said and by whom, and what can’t be?” Rosemary’s father makes a distinction between language and communication: “Language is more than just words…[it] is also the order of words and the way one word inflects another” (98). Do you agree with his explanation? How do Fern and Rosemary communicate? In what ways do you see "Language does this to our memories—simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies" (48)? What instances show that "language is such an imprecise vehicle" (85)? Lowell says that “Money is the language humans speak” (305). What other languages do you see humans speaking in the book? What do you think of the methods that is the language the ALF uses to try to be heard?
5. Fern: Explore the portrayal of Fern in the novel. How does learning about Fern first as a sister then later as a chimpanzee affect your perception of her? Does naming her make her too human and cause characters to forget that she is in fact not human? Using tools and language have both been suggested as the line between being a human and an animal, but we now know that some animals use tools and language too. So what are the qualities that distinguish Fern and Rosemary? Does the adult Fern remember her human family?
6. Dr. and Mrs. Cooke: In what way was the Cookes’ decision to co-raise Fern and Rosemary a good or a bad one? What do you think of their parenting methods? Rosemary’s mother tells her, “I want you to have an extraordinary life” (290). How well do you think this wish is fulfilled? Compare the father’s scientific data and articles with the mother’s journals as records of their children. What aspects of their children are given in the academic journals compared to in the “baby books” (283)?  What do their reactions to each of their children’s leaving reveal about them?
7. Animal Experimentation: Discuss issues concerning animals in scientific research. When, if ever, is using animals in experiments acceptable? What industries and aspects of our lives are connected to animal testing? Consider the remark that “psychological studies of nonhuman animals…taught us little about the animals but lots about the researchers who designed and ran them” (201). What did you learn from fistulated cows, Harlow’s rhesus monkeys, and Cooke’s Fern/Rosemary study? How do you weigh the possibilities of “advances in our understanding and treatment of SIV, Alzheimer’s, autism, and Parkinson’s” (256) against humanzees, drugged spiders’ spinning webs (174), life being “bought and sold” (213), and “generations of beagles…exposed to strontium-90 and radium-226, their voice boxes removed so that no one would hear them suffering” (231)?

Leading Discussion

 
You will be graded both for your performance in conveying your ideas, in facilitating discussion and in responding to your classmates' presentations, how you present your own ideas and how you show that you know how to listen to, think about, and discuss ideas that others propose.

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Last updated November 17, 2015