The Zoo Story Philosophical Viewpoint: The Absurd Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (line number)

Quote #7

WITH GOD WHO IS A COLORED QUEEN WHO WEARS A KIMONO AND PLUCKS HIS EYEBROWS, WHO IS A WOMAN WHO CRIES WITH DETERMINATION BEHIND HER CLOSED DOORS…with God who, I'm told, turned his back on the whole thing some time ago… (163)

The philosophical absurd is an atheist philosophy—it usually presents God as absent or unknowable. Jerry seems to be using slurs against gay people and black people as a way to mock God, or suggest God is ridiculous. Which seems like an unpleasant thing to do—but Jerry is fairly unpleasant, after all.

Quote #8

I went to the zoo to find out more about the way people exist with animals, and the way animals exist with each other, and with people too. It probably wasn't a fair test, what with everyone separated by bars from everyone else… (202)

The play is suggesting here that just like animals in a zoo, people never connect; they're all in cages. But if that's true, then there's got to be a way to break free.

Quote #9

JERRY: I'm crazy, you bastard
PETER: That isn't funny. (214-215)

Does absurdity mean the world is crazy or that it's funny? Or that it's neither. There's nothing very funny or crazy about dying—even if you've got parakeets at home.