The Monkey

Content Warning: This section contains references to child abuse.

Hal is the protagonist of “The Monkey,” which covers events that span his early childhood to adulthood. He is the story’s viewpoint character, but his perspective is unreliable; most of Hal’s experiences with the monkey date to his childhood, and there is little tangible evidence linking the monkey to the deaths that Hal associates it with, suggesting that it may simply have been a way for Hal to conceptualize the tragedies of his early life. Even in the present, it is possible that Hal is merely projecting his own angry and violent impulses onto the toy, though Petey’s similar reaction to the monkey lends credence to the idea that it is a genuinely malevolent force. At the very least, Hal is less than fully self-aware; he is repeatedly surprised by his own angry outbursts, some of which are implied to predate the monkey’s reappearance in his life and therefore do not stem directly from its influence. Through this depiction of Hal, the story explores how trauma can breed further trauma by causing people to behave violently and cruelly.    

By contrast, the young Hal is initially characterized by his uncomplicated joy and curiosity.