Trying to adopt another culture is difficult. Trying to adopt a
different species is damn-near impossible. Kafka talks about the former through
a fable about the latter. An ape assimilating into humanity allegorises a
person of one ethnic background assimilating into a different culture. This
person may mimic every behaviour and internalise every value, but at some level
his audience will only see this person’s origin.
Red Peter – Peter to those who respect him – is an ape. An academy has
invited him to talk about life as an ape. As Peter’s has no memory of his
ape-like days, he hijacks the engagement to talk about how he became human.
Captured in the Gold Coast by a hunting party, and imprisoned in a cage on a
boat, Peter needed an escape. Ape-strength could not break his cage, and even
if it could, a bullet would be his reward. The only way out, he realised, was
to become human. Through a vigorous apprenticeship under his shipmates he
learnt how to smoke, spit, and drink. He continued his education on dry land,
employing five teachers at the same time to help him reach the level of the ‘average
European’. With humanity under his belt, he took a job as a variety performer,
the only job available to him outside the zoo. But as he says to the academy,
he does not seek their approval. Through his narrative, he only hopes they understand
him.
