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Stella
Bob is a tiny stray dog who lives at the Big Top Mall. While Bob is proud that he’s a stray and insists that he doesn’t actually have a home, he does spend nearly all his time at the mall. He sleeps every night on Ivan’s belly and regularly checks Ivan’s beard for crumbs. Bob came to the mall after someone threw him and his siblings onto the highway when they were tiny puppies; Bob was the only one to survive. In part because of this experience, Bob takes a very dim view of humans. Humans, in his opinion, are cruel, selfish, and are beyond even trying to understand. It’s shocking to him when Ruby or Stella suggest that humans are capable of kindness. However, it’s hard to tell how much of this is a front and how much of this Bob truly believes, as Ivan sometimes notices Bob sitting with Julia and allowing her to pet him—clearly, Bob doesn’t believe that all humans are horrible. In addition, Bob is honest to a fault; he isn’t always willing to go along with Ivan’s insistence that he lives in a domain rather than a cage, for instance. He also tells Ruby that Ivan is going to get her out of the mall—which is true, since Ivan promised Stella he would—but Ivan resents that Bob told Ruby this, since he sees success as unlikely. Ivan also notes that Bob is a “useful” friend, since he can sneak around the mall and gather information that Ivan, who can’t leave his domain, cannot. Though Bob is supportive of Ivan’s painting, he also resents that Ivan smells of paint and is spending his nights painting instead of allowing Bob to sleep on him. But not long after Ivan moves to the zoo, he learns that Bob allowed Julia’s family to adopt him.
Bob Quotes in The One and Only Ivan
The The One and Only Ivan quotes below are all either spoken by Bob or refer to Bob. 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:
).
change—worry
Quotes
“A good zoo,” Stella says, “is a large domain. A wild cage. A safe place to be. It has room to roam and humans who don’t hurt.” She pauses, considering her words. “A good zoo is how humans make amends.”
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I’ve heard the Jambo story many times. Stella says that humans found it odd that the huge silverback didn’t kill the boy.
Why, I wonder, was that so surprising? The boy was young, scared, alone.
He was, after all, just another great ape.
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“Bad humans killed my family, and bad humans sent me here. But that day in the hole, it was humans who saved me.” Ruby leans her head on Stella’s shoulder. “Those humans were good.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Bob says. “I just don’t understand them. I never will.”
“You’re not alone,” I say, and I turn my gaze back to the racing gray clouds.
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the next morning—photo
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Mack turns on the TV.
We are on The Early News at Five O’Clock.
Bob says don’t let it go to my head.
There we all are. Mack, Ruby, me. George and Julia. The billboard, the mall, the ring.
And the claw-stick.
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Bob Quotes in The One and Only Ivan
The The One and Only Ivan quotes below are all either spoken by Bob or refer to Bob. 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:
).
change—worry
Quotes
“A good zoo,” Stella says, “is a large domain. A wild cage. A safe place to be. It has room to roam and humans who don’t hurt.” She pauses, considering her words. “A good zoo is how humans make amends.”
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I’ve heard the Jambo story many times. Stella says that humans found it odd that the huge silverback didn’t kill the boy.
Why, I wonder, was that so surprising? The boy was young, scared, alone.
He was, after all, just another great ape.
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“Bad humans killed my family, and bad humans sent me here. But that day in the hole, it was humans who saved me.” Ruby leans her head on Stella’s shoulder. “Those humans were good.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Bob says. “I just don’t understand them. I never will.”
“You’re not alone,” I say, and I turn my gaze back to the racing gray clouds.
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the next morning—photo
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Mack turns on the TV.
We are on The Early News at Five O’Clock.
Bob says don’t let it go to my head.
There we all are. Mack, Ruby, me. George and Julia. The billboard, the mall, the ring.
And the claw-stick.
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