Summer of the Monkeys

The tools that Jay Berry uses to capture the monkeys symbolize his perseverance, his trust in Grandpa as a mentor, and his creativity. As symbols, the steel traps, the butterfly net, and the bait support the theme of resilience in the face of frustration and failure. Specifically, the steel traps symbolize the need to alter a comfortable idea to suit a new situation; Jay Berry is no stranger to trapping animals, but he learns from Grandpa how to wrap the jaws of the traps with burlap so that a monkey’s paw or foot will not be injured.

Jay Berry has never seen a butterfly net. Grandpa’s caricaturized description of the professor who owned it leads him to envision a kind of scholar he’s never seen. The net initially works, symbolizing the way a new, unheard-of idea is sometimes necessary, but Jimbo botches the trap, representing the risks inherent with using an untested tool. The bait (apples and coconuts) seems like a foolproof idea—yet all four times Jay Berry fails to use bait to trap the monkeys. The loss of the bait each time represents the pitfalls of making assumptions toward success in any difficult task.