Ruby In 'The One And Only Ivan'

Ruby in the Rough

Many individuals believe that their choices, thoughts, and actions are not influenced by other individuals. In reality, though, many aspects play into their choices, thoughts, and actions including children. When children are involved, an adult often chooses to follow the most morally correct way to behave, whether that be actions or choices. Katherine Applegate used children to show how deeply they influence the behaviors of adults in her book The One and Only Ivan. Ruby is a young elephant who moves into the mall joining Ivan, the gorilla, and Stella, the elephant, who have lived there for the majority of their lives. Her new approach to the situation of "the domain" helps influence Ivan's thoughts, choices, and actions regarding his living space. Julia is a young girl, her father George works in the
mall where the animals are kept. Julia has a heavy influence on her father's choices regarding Ivan and Ruby's living situations. Over the course of the book, Applegate suggests that children help adults see the world differently allowing them to see morality and responsible behavior. Through Ivan and Ruby's relationship, along with Julia and her father's relationship, Applegate shows how a child can truly affect how adults make decisions regarding maturity and morality. The One and Only Ivan shows how Ruby and Ivan's relationship changes over time by Ruby's influence on Ivan's maturity and morality.
When Ruby first arrives at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, Ivan is jealous of the attention that Ruby gets. The first time Julia comes to visit, she goes right to Stella and Ruby's domain instead of visiting Ivan. He is later annoyed by Ruby's questions and talking. He learns to deal with her questions by attempting to give her the answers to what she wants and telling her stories. When Stella falls ill, Ivan volunteers to watch over Ruby once she dies. "When I say the words they surprise me. 'You want me to take care of Ruby' " (Applegate 112). During this event Ivan begins to take responsibility for Ruby, promising to give her a better life than Stella had. The reader is able to detect this from the fact that he is surprised with what he is saying. This is not in his usual character to take charge and willingly offer to take care of someone else. Ivan saying this to Stella truly shows that through Ruby's influence, he has begun to take on a more mature role by acting as her guardian after Stella
dies. Ivan shows maturity by trying to attain a better environment for Ruby. He then creates a plan in which he gets Julia's attention, so she can get Ivan and Ruby the publicity they need to move to the zoo, leaving the horrible situation they had been living in. The zookeepers then took charge and started to bring in transport crates to move the animals to the local zoo. Ruby is shown her container first. She is scared of it and needs a lot of persuasion to get her to go near it. Ivan knows these crates will lead them to a better captivity with other animals of their kind. Ivan explains to her " 'I'm not sure you understand. That box might be taking you to a place where there are other elephants,' ... 'a place with more room, and humans who care about you'" (Applegate 240). Being the mature voice Ruby needs to hear, Ivan expresses this is her only option. Ivan is also scared and knows that he needs to be brave for her. From the readers' standpoint, we are able to detect that his actions are influenced by Ruby watching him for guidance. He knows that he needs to get Ruby into the transport crate and out of the mall in order to get to the zoo. Once it is Ivan's turn to go near the transport crate he is just as nervous as Ruby was, but he remembers she is watching. As he faces his cage he makes his decision, "I have to do it. Ruby is watching me from between the bars of her cage, and this box is the way out" (Applegate 250). Ivan is able to understand that he has worked very hard for this opportunity to help her get out of this situation. Ivan shows maturity by taking the first step and facing his fears to calm Ruby about the crates. He knows that she is looking up to him during this shocking experience of being taken to unknown territory. Ruby influences Ivan to take the leap of faith going into the cage to make sure she is taken into a safer environment. Although Ivan does not want to go into the crate and he is afraid of it, he shows maturity in overcoming his fear. He is acting morally within his promise to Stella to give Ruby a better life than she had. As a reader, we are able to see that Ivan needed to mature through his relationship with Ruby to get her out of the horrible cage they lived in. Ruby's childhood innocence showed Ivan that he needed to get her out of their living space to prevent her from being injured. Ruby is not the only child to hold influence over an adult. Julia and George are the humans throughout the story who interact most often with the animals. During the time Julia spends with the animals while her father works, she interacts mostly with Ivan until Ruby arrives. Towards the middle of the book, Applegate turns the focus to Stella's leg which had previously been injured. Her leg was never given the opportunity to properly heal. This gives Julia the chance to push her father to do the right thing for the animals they interact with so often.