85 pages • 2 hours read •
Summer of the Monkeys
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Symbols & Motifs
Tools
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.
The Old Man of the Mountains
Jay Berry wonders throughout the story whether Daisy’s sightings of the Old Man of the Mountains are real or imagined. The Old Man might represent a higher power like God or Jesus, as suggested by Papa: “What Daisy is seeing could be the spirit of Christ” (207). Daisy considers the Old Man to be a caretaker of the hills and creatures of the surrounding area, a kind of “Father Nature” who wants humans to join him in respectfully taking care of the mountains. Jay Berry worries that the Old Man means to bring him bad luck in his endeavor to catch the monkeys, as Daisy warns; he is relieved to hear Daisy report that the Old Man smiles when he points at their house during the storm instead of frown. Eager to make an ally of the Old Man in his dream, Jay Berry appeals to him and asks for help; his actions in the dream support the theme of befriending one’s foes. The next morning, when Daisy discovers the fairy ring and each member of the Lee family makes a wish, Jay Berry decides he will believe Daisy when she says she sees the Old Man. Jay Berry is eager for the blessings of the Old Man even if he does not fully understand him.
The Pony (Dolly)
Jay Berry dreams of having his own pony. To him, a pony of his own means freedom to wander farther and faster than he does already. When he is assessing the look of the roan and the paint ponies from which he is trying to choose, he sees that the paint is “built for speed” (239). The trip to Grandpa’s store, for example, would be a quick and effortless endeavor on the back of his own pony. To Jay Berry, who genuinely loves his dog Rowdy, ownership of a pony also means another animal to love. He speaks tenderly to the paint mare and is thrilled when she seems to take to him in return: “Up until then everything that had happened had made my old heart as heavy as lead, but when the little mare gave me that push it just hauled off and melted” (243).
The ownership of a pony represents a key step in coming of age; one must be physically and emotionally mature enough to handle the day-to-day responsibility of tending to a large animal, a kind of care that is more complicated and more grueling than feeding a house pet. Jay Berry realizes he must give up the pony he chose to help his sister; this hints that he had not possessed the maturity necessary for pony ownership, as he neglected to realize for so long that his money could be used for a higher purpose (healing Daisy). The painful tears that Dolly and Jay Berry cry when they part illustrate the angst of coming of age and growing up.
Once he works through his unsettled feelings regarding Dolly’s loss and accepts fully that helping Daisy was not only the right decision but the thing he wanted even more, fate (or Grandpa) intervenes—and he receives Dolly back as an unexplained gift. This symbolizes the gifts we receive when we make an altruistic sacrifice for others.
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