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The Guest Room
Nandy’s scar, which bridges the crown of her head, is an enduring and distressing symbol of human greed and cruelty. The scar serves as a constant reminder of Nandy’s past mistreatment before arriving at the Jersey Zoo. It is a physical manifestation of the pain and violence she endured at the hands of the humans who caught her. Unlike N’Pongo, when Nandy arrives she has been stuffed into a crate, which is so small that Durrell says it wouldn’t even be big enough for a squirrel. N’Pongo arrives at the zoo as a playful, curious creature who considers himself another member of the zoo’s cohort of humans and feels no fear. Nandy, however, has been taught all her short life that humans are dangerous, so she struggles to acclimate. Durrell describes Nandy as a beautiful gorilla, yet her scar disrupts that beauty: no matter how fat and sleek she becomes living at the zoo, the trauma of the machete blow that almost split her head open can’t be erased.
It’s not all terrible, however. While Nandy’s scar is a badge of suffering, it’s also a sign that she is a survivor and that she was able to recover from her horrible treatment before coming into the hands of the Durrells. Nandy’s happy life in the zoo—where she receives proper care and respect and the companionship of a caring mate—offers a hopeful message of recovery and resiliency for animals who have been mistreated.
Nandy’s Scar Quotes in A Gorilla in the Guest-room
The A Gorilla in the Guest-room quotes below all refer to the symbol of Nandy’s Scar. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A Gorilla in the Guest-room
Quotes
Nandy’s eyes were large and lustrous, and when she looked sideways, she showed the whites of them; but they were frightened eyes [...]. They were the eyes of an animal that had had little experience of human beings, but even that limited experience had given her no reason to trust or respect them.
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She had such a woebegone, frightened face that one longed to be able to pick her up and comfort her, but she had been too deeply hurt, and this was the last thing she would have appreciated.
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They were working out their own protocol: [...] It had the childishness of a General Election but was three times as interesting. However, by that evening, Nandy had achieved what amounted to Votes for Female Gorillas, and both she and N’Pongo shared the wooden shelf.
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Although they were so different in character, they quite plainly adored one another. N’Pongo was the great giggling clown of the pair, while Nandy was much quieter, more introspective and watchful.
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Nandy’s Scar Symbol Timeline in A Gorilla in the Guest-room
The timeline below shows where the symbol Nandy’s Scar appears in A Gorilla in the Guest-room. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Gorilla in the Guest-room
...is deeply frightened of humans. Durrell thinks that this is because of a thick, white scar on the top of her head, which he says looks like she was almost killed...
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...take her a long time to get over the trauma of her capture and her scarring injury.
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