Karen Joy Fowler’s We are all Completely Beside Ourselves

We are all Completely Beside Ourselves
“We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” is Karen Joy Fowler’s sixth novel. It covers various sophisticated moral and ethical issues, in a young woman’s funny, witty and wry voice. Rosemary, the narrator, works hard to keep certain aspects of her young life a secret from other people. However, she also worked hard to conceal the secret from herself. Her sister and brother went missing, her father retreats into research and data while her mother became a shell. She tossed a glass full of milk on the floor and got arrested. But, something else ‘beside themselves’ is going on. It is a secret (Fowler, 2014).
The book analyzes an ostensibly experiment of nature vs. nature. If Fern was raised as human, what would she be capable of, especially in language literacy. According to Rosemary, a psychologist’s daughter, whatever is being studied is not what is actually under study. She suspect’s she is the study subject, not Fern. She thinks her father is not raising a chimp with the ability to talk as humans, but the converse; a human who could talk as chimps (Calarco, 2014). She is upset with her father upon giving this issue much thought. It is likely that Rosemary is simply being unfair.
Although Rosemary is not ready to admit, her mother was equally involved in the experiment. She is defensive and protective of her mother’s total collapse. According to a research Rosemary did on the experiments, it is easier and more relevant to find out how chimps communicate to each other instead of how well they can learn to communicate with humans. It took almost a century to remove humans from the midst of the ‘chimp experiment (Calarco, 2014. During that time, little to no existing research suggested that it is human’s fault for failing to comprehend instead of the converse. Human primacy and intelligence forms and communication priorities were not questioned.
Unlike humans, chimps develop faster and, are more advanced in every way by age two. Rosemary attributes to herself the classic chimp qualities. The attributes are outlined on her report card for kindergarten. She describes them as possessive, impulsive and demanding. It is not easy for her to keep her hands to herself, and perceives the space around her horizontally and vertically. She is unable to climb things as Fern, her sister, does, but still views the world as climbable (Fowler, 2014).
According to the narrator, science and medical research, including meats are not bad, but research facilities and food industries use indefensible and redundant cruelties to animals. It is horrifying that animals are only raised to live misery lives. It is better and more ethical if things are done in the open. The same precept should be reflected in wars, politics, environmental policies and prisons, among other aspects of life (Fowler, 2014). And, animal rights activists are definitely doing the right thing. They help fight for animal rights and raise awareness on the need to solve ethical issues surrounding animals.
It is unethical to treat animals differently from humans, yet they are both primates and have many things in common, including DNA. However, Rosemary’s father is right that making sense of the US Congress is as good as analyzing a primate research conducted over 200 years. Although Fern has a decent vocabulary, it is not the same as having the ability to communicate sophisticated issues. Rosemary and her sister understand each other well. However, it is not known how much Rosemary has to imagine and impose her sister’s communication, and how much originates from Fern (Kingsolver, 2013).
Rosemary talked a lot as a young girl because she believed her talks were valuable. However, it becomes unimportant when Fern goes missing (Kingsolver, 2013). She becomes quieter and talks less. She becomes talkative again at the end of the novel to tell the story of her brother and sister. America is one of the two nations worldwide that still use chimps in experiments. Afterwards, they are relocated to sanctuaries. But, with shortage of funds to relocate the animals, many of them will continue to live in labs with humans even after the studies end.
Chimps are dangerous and when male ones reach adolescence, they become stronger than human being. That means they cannot be controlled like before. Therefore, they can only living with humans in the short term. And, raising them with humans is cruel and defies their rights. With life expectancy of about five decades, the chimps can only be controlled for about the first decade of their lives. Afterwards, they become uncontrollable. It means they cannot live with humans for the most part of their lives. Chimps should be left to live with their mothers. Separating them is unethical (Calarco, 2014).
The anti-vivisectionists fought against the use of animals in experiments about a century ago, but they lost. Objection to such experiments, ever since, is seen as childish, emotional and unprogressive. The novel was written to attempt a similar fight (Kingsolver, 2013). It questions what it means to be a human and an animal at the same time. Readers of the novel are also stirred to develop interest in the topic and ask the same questions. It explores some of the latest, incredible experiments on animal cognition. Crows have superior facial recognition skills and at some point, the military considered using them to hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The world is surprising, sophisticated, and horrible yet a beautiful place for both humans and animals (Kingsolver, 2013). Hopefully, all animals can live together in coherence and harmony. When Rosemary was just 5, her sister disappeared. She does not tell readers what happened to Fern until at the end of the novel. She tells how her family was devastated when her sister left. As a result, her brother Lowell grew up to become an animal rights’ activist being hunted by the FBI. Her mother ended up in depression for the same reason. Her father became a drunkard. According to the narrator, her fate was the worst of them all. She had no choice, but deny a critical aspect of herself and just act human.
Rosemary joined kindergarten and had to refrain from jumping on desks and tables during play and biting. However, it was too late to become fully ‘human’. The kids in her school realized she was different in the way she carried out herself (Calarco, 2014). They shunned, and nicknamed her a “monkey girl.” The novel provokes readers to think critically about the various aspects of human relationship with animals, something that most people would rather overlook or ignore. It asks various questions. Do animals have empathy? Do they think? Do they have long-term memories?
Although the novel is exquisite and smart, it is mostly sad and portrays one of the many ways humans can behave unethically towards animals. The histories of real “cross fostered” chimps, including the infamous Washoe, are covered throughout the novel. Washoe was the first American chimp to learn the sign language. The novel author quotes the chimp’s researcher and human companion for a very long time (Fowler, 2014). According to the researchers, the chimp “taught him that the word ‘being’ in the phrase ‘human being’, is more critical than the word ‘human’.” If you think creating a blur between humans and animals is simply an emotional reaction or just blasphemy, the novel dares its readers to think twice.




References
Fowler, K. J. (2014). We are all completely beside ourselves. GP Putnam's Sons.
Calarco, M. (2014). Boundary Issues: Human–Animal Relationships in Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely beside Ourselves. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 60(3), 616-635.
Kingsolver, B. (2013). The Other Sister: Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. New York Times.