In Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, Jerry has trouble distinguishing between emotions
of love and anger, because of his unhappy childhood. This is shown repeatedly throughout the
story in both is words and actions. His inability to organize his feelings is what ultimately causes
When Jerry tells the story of the dog, he says he first fed the dog hamburgers in order to
gain its trust, and allow him free passage throughout his apartment. When this didn't change his
relationship with the animal, he fed it a poisoned hamburger in an attempt to kill. Later in his
story he tells Peter "that I didn't want the dog to die. I didn't, and not just because I'd
poisoned him" (18). He reaffirms this again in the story when he says "I loved the dog now, and
I wanted him to love me" (19). At first, he showed the dog love with un-poisoned hamburgers.
Then his emotions changed to hate, and he attempted to kill the dog with a poisoned burger.
And finally, he felt love for the dog again. These types of mood swings are characteristic of
someone with a serious mental disorder. It is not surprising to see Jerry have the same sort of
mood swings toward the end of the play.
Jerry wants to connect with Peter, and relates to him much in the same way as he did
with the dog. At first, Jerry is friendly and benign as he talks with Jerry about his family. Then
Jerry tells the story of the dog, and afterward his emotions change to anger and hate. He
punches Peter in the arm and demands the bench to himself, which astounds Peter. He does
not understand why Jerry is acting in his schizophrenic way, even though it was told to him
through the dog story. Then Jerry pulls out a knife, and ends up falling on it and mortally
wounding himself. After this, he calms down and feels love for Peter, and says "I came unto
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