Red Peter Tone

In a perfect world, everyone would be accepted and treated fairly by the majority naturally but we don't live in a perfect world. This is the exact battle Red Peter has with humans. They capture him from his natural habitat and let him replace a former ape named Peter who passed. However, he was allowed the addition of “Red” because when he was shot and captured he received a red scar from the bullet. In the short story “A Report to an Academy”, Kafka demonstrates a matter-of-fact tone that shifts to a reflective tone to convey that people imitate others because they want to fit in.

Kafka creates a matter-of-fact tone which is emphasized as Red Peter speaks about his capture. At the beginning of Red Peter's speech, he states “…it is meant

He talks about his alcohol abuse along with his first words. Red Peter says “My speaking voice failed me again immediately and it took months for it to come back; my aversion to the liquor bottle returned and was even stronger than before” (87). Red Peter is an ape, but when he was on the ship, caged being transported he saw humans drinking which eventually made him take a liking to it as well. This is a great example of Red Peter doing human things to fit into the majority. When Red Peter speaks of his past it allows us to see him again adapt to the conditions he was put in. He saw what the crew members did and mimicked their behaviors as an escape. However Red Peter never mocked humans, he would just imitate their

This shift strengthens my argument because it shows how Red Peter went from having a neutral tone to a sad one as he reflected on what had happened in his past and how he imitated humans in an act to not feel different from everyone else that surrounded him. Red Peter speaks of his time on a ship where he lived in a cage and when he spoke his first words to humans. However he then interrupts himself to say “ I didn't imitate human beings because they appealed to me; I imitated because I was looking for a way out, for no other reason”(87). This quote shows how Red Peter only imitated what humans were doing because he wanted an escape from his mind. He did not want to be stuck with his thoughts anymore while locked in his cage. This shifted the tone from matter-of-fact to reflective because Red Peter began to relive what he went through and truly speak to the academy with emotion. He wanted to fit into the majority which is something I think Kafka was trying to convey because he wrote that Red Peter was only looking for an escape. This lets readers infer that he was just trying to survive and only fit in but also be accepted into the new world he was placed