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Mack
Julia is George’s 10-year-old daughter. She accompanies him to the mall every night and either does homework or draws while he cleans. Her mother, Sara, is chronically ill. Julia has long dark hair and a big smile—and though Ivan isn’t the biggest fan of human children, he and Julia have a special bond because they’re both artists. Julia, in fact, was the one who got Ivan started with drawing by passing him a crayon one day. She always compliments his drawings and tries to figure out what he’s drawn—and she’s usually able to identify what it is that he’s depicted. Ivan also admires Julia’s artwork, since Julia draws and paints fantastical things out of her imagination, things that Ivan doesn’t believe he’s capable of drawing. A caring and kind person, Julia takes issue with Mack’s occasional cruelty and neglect of his animals. Julia, for instance, begs George to ask Mack about calling a vet out to see Stella about her infected foot, and she’s extremely disturbed when she witnesses Mack threaten Ruby with the claw-stick. Because of Julia’s compassion and the fact that she’s an artist, Ivan knows that Julia is the only person with even a chance of understanding the mural he paints to try to free Ruby. And indeed, Julia recognizes what Ivan has depicted—Ruby at the zoo and the word “home”—and realizes that Ivan wants his painting to go on the billboard. She’s then able to convince George to help her put it up on the billboard. For the most part, Julia is happy with the media attention that Ivan’s billboard receives. She believes that Ivan and Ruby will be happier and safer in a zoo, even if it means having to give up her close relationship with some of her best friends. However, at the very end of the novel, Julia and George visit the zoo—with Bob in tow—and reveal that George is going to start work at the zoo and that Bob now lives with Julia’s family.
Julia Quotes in The One and Only Ivan
The The One and Only Ivan quotes below are all either spoken by Julia or refer to Julia. 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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change—worry
Quotes
“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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“Mack says the vet’s coming in the morning if Stella’s not any better,” [George] tells Julia. “He says he’s not going to let her die on him, not after all the money he’s put into her.”
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days—finally
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It’s different now, when I paint.
I’m not painting what I see in front of me. A banana. An apple. I’m painting what I see in my head. Things that don’t exist.
At least, not yet.
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I’m ready to show Julia what I’ve made.
It has to be Julia. She’s an artist. Surely she’ll look, truly look, at my painting. She won’t notice the smudges and tears. She won’t care if the pieces don’t quite fit together. She’ll see past all of that.
Surely Julia will see what I’ve imagined.
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Thump. Thump. Thump.
I bounce off the walls. I screech and bellow. I beat and beat and beat my chest.
Bob hides under Not-Tag, his paws over his ears.
I’m angry, at last.
I have someone to protect.
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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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She starts to leave, then runs back to my cage. “I almost forgot. This is for you, Ivan.”
She slips a piece of paper into my cage. It’s a drawing of Ruby and me.
We’re eating yogurt raisins. Ruby is playing with another baby elephant, and I’m holding hands with a lovely gorilla.
She has red lips and a flower in her hair.
I look, as I always do in Julia’s pictures, like an elegant fellow, but something is different about this drawing.
In this picture, I am smiling.
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Get the entire The One and Only Ivan LitChart as a printable PDF.
Julia Quotes in The One and Only Ivan
The The One and Only Ivan quotes below are all either spoken by Julia or refer to Julia. 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
“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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“Mack says the vet’s coming in the morning if Stella’s not any better,” [George] tells Julia. “He says he’s not going to let her die on him, not after all the money he’s put into her.”
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days—finally
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It’s different now, when I paint.
I’m not painting what I see in front of me. A banana. An apple. I’m painting what I see in my head. Things that don’t exist.
At least, not yet.
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I’m ready to show Julia what I’ve made.
It has to be Julia. She’s an artist. Surely she’ll look, truly look, at my painting. She won’t notice the smudges and tears. She won’t care if the pieces don’t quite fit together. She’ll see past all of that.
Surely Julia will see what I’ve imagined.
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Thump. Thump. Thump.
I bounce off the walls. I screech and bellow. I beat and beat and beat my chest.
Bob hides under Not-Tag, his paws over his ears.
I’m angry, at last.
I have someone to protect.
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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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She starts to leave, then runs back to my cage. “I almost forgot. This is for you, Ivan.”
She slips a piece of paper into my cage. It’s a drawing of Ruby and me.
We’re eating yogurt raisins. Ruby is playing with another baby elephant, and I’m holding hands with a lovely gorilla.
She has red lips and a flower in her hair.
I look, as I always do in Julia’s pictures, like an elegant fellow, but something is different about this drawing.
In this picture, I am smiling.
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