Hurt Go Happy (27 page)

Jane Goodall Institute

Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care
(where the Coulston Foundation chimps ended up)

The Center for Great Apes

Friends of Washoe

The International Primate League

Or check the Internet for a sanctuary for chimpanzees near you.

 

The American Sign Language Alphabet

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research for this book began in 1988, so I'm afraid my memory of every helping hand is dim and I'm bound to have left someone out. To those people, I apologize. The first few years were spent trying to convince myself that I could pull off a project like this since I knew virtually nothing about chimpanzees and less about being deaf. I began by reading books by deaf writers and by authors with deaf parents. Between working full-time and graduate school, I managed sporadically to attend a few summer-session sign language classes and wish to start by thanking Vicky Yancy at College of the Redwoods for her guidance in understanding the deaf community.

About the same time, I began to make contact with people at the forefront of the efforts to save chimpanzees in the wild and to protect captive chimps, i.e., those in movies, circuses, TV commercials, and research labs, and with the saints operating facilities to house the discarded. In the first category, I wish to thank Jane Goodall for her encouragement, her kind notes, and a phone call that put me on top of the world. Also in that category is Shirley McGreal of the International Primate Protection League in Summerville, South Carolina, for guiding me through the maze of rehab facilities. I owe Rachel Weiss, formerly of Yerkes, who spent all the years since fighting for the lives of the chimps she grew to love, for sharing her grief with me. Thanks, also, to Wallace Swett, director of Primarily Primates in San Antonio, Texas, and to the volunteers and staff at Friends of Washoe, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington, especially Mary Lee Jensvold, for her critique of a very needy early draft. But the two people who really made this book possible are Patti Ragan, director of the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, who gave me Chris's and Noelle's hands to hold and has supported me in this endeavor for nearly ten years; and Ron Henderson, who lost his job because he publicly questioned the treatment of the Coulston Foundation chimps. If the scene at the “Clarke Foundation” is chilling, it is because Ron cared enough to provide the astonishing, heartbreaking details.

I want to acknowledge Belinda, who was three years old in 1959 when her mother randomly and frequently beat her with a belt and sent her to the Winter Park Day Nursery covered in welts. I have remembered you all my life and Joey is my way of speaking out for you now because no one would listen then. I hope you are happy at last and have broken the pattern.

A special thanks goes to my greatly relieved writers group: Norma Watkins, Steve Sapontzis, Stephen Garber, Lee Nichols, Suzanne Byerley, Kate Erickson, and Estelle Frank, all of whom helped to drag this book out of me chapter by chapter. Without them, I would have given up. Thanks also to Tonya Stremlau of Gallaudet University for her careful and thoughtful reading of the manuscript. My undying gratitude to Kathy Dawson and Teresa Sholars, who remain in my corner, and to Bonnie Hearn Hill, a wonderful writer and generous friend. Without her this may have ended with a pile of paper gathering dust on the floor of my closet. And last, Laura Dail, an extraordinary agent, for believing in this book, and Susan Chang, my editor, for her gentle but persistent insistence that I get it as right as it could be.

 

TOR TEEN BOOKS

READING & ACTIVITY GUIDE
TO

HURT GO HAPPY

BY
GINNY RORBY

Ages 10 & up; Grades 5 & up.

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The Common Core State Standards–aligned questions and activities that follow are intended to enhance your reading of
Hurt Go Happy
. Please feel free to adapt this content to suit the needs and interests of your students or reading group participants.

BEFORE READING THE BOOK:
WRITING & DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

The pre-reading writing and discussion activities below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (W.5-8.3, 9-10.3, 11-12.3); (SL.5-8.1, 9-10.1, 11-12.1)

1.   
Hurt Go Happy
explores the lines of communication and affection between humans and chimpanzees. Ask students to consider their interactions with other animals, such as caring for a pet, an encounter with a primate at a zoo, an experience riding horseback, or perhaps working on a farm. Have each student write a short reflection on a moment when they felt a special connection with an animal and what they imagine the animal felt at the same time.

2.   Ask each student to imagine he or she is deaf, or has another disability such as blindness or a lost limb. Write a journal-style essay describing an ordinary morning, paying particular attention to activities, such as hearing an alarm clock or getting down stairs, which would require new or different skills to perform with a disability. If students have disabled friends, classmates, or family members, they may choose to transcribe an interview with the disabled person about their strategies for starting each day.

3.   Invite students to discuss their thoughts about testing medicines, chemicals, and other products on animals and/or their thoughts on the pros and cons of keeping animals confined in zoos. Have they read about these issues in the newspaper or online? Are they concerned about these, or related animal rights issues? Have these topics ever been discussed around their family table? Would they consider helping an organization dedicated to the protection of one or many animal species? Why or why not?

AFTER READING THE BOOK:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The post-reading writing and discussion activities below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (W.5-8.3, 9-10.3, 11-12.3); (SL.5-8.1, 9-10.1, 11-12.1)

1.   How is Joey awakened in the opening lines of the novel? How does she make sense of this moment? With the ability to hear, how might you have experienced this moment differently than Joey?

2.   Early in the story, Joey is frustrated by her thumb-sucking. Why do you think this young teen still sucks her thumb? What might this tell you about her character?

3.   What moments in the story best help you to understand the isolation imposed by Joey's disability? What type of language does the author use to convey Joey's experience of deaf life to readers?

4.   Describe Joey's relationship with her mother, stepfather, and brother. Which is the most complicated relationship and why?

5.   Joey first meets Charlie while foraging for mushrooms. What is Charlie's first reaction to Joey? How does Joey first feel about Charlie? How might wild mushrooms be seen as an appropriate image to reflect the complexity of many relationships and events in the novel?

6.   About how many signs has Sukari learned? Do you think her signing reveals a sense of humor, or other human qualities? What do you think of the fact that chimpanzees have 98.4 percent of the same DNA as humans?

7.   List at least three ways in which Joey and Sukari have led similar lives. Explain how this might help Joey identify so closely with Sukari.

8.   Why does Joey's mother object to her relationships with Charlie Mansell and Sukari? Why are these friendships so important to Joey?

9.   Why doesn't Joey's mother want her to sign? Is she right or wrong? If you were trying to help Joey get permission to learn to sign, what arguments might you make to her mother?

10. Who is Roxy? Is she truly a friend to Joey? What important and painful lesson does her relationship with Roxy teach Joey?

11. How does Joey's life change when Ruth, Ray, and Luke meet Sukari and Charlie? What are the positives and negatives? How does Joey feel about Luke's relationship with Sukari? What reasons might you suggest for the author's decison to show a toddler's relationship with Sukari, in addition to teen and adult relationships, in the novel?

12. At what point in the novel do you come to understand the true cause of Joey's deafness? Why do you think the author chose to reveal this information gradually?

13. Cite at least two passages where weather events or other acts of nature mirror or counterpoint dramatic moments in the plot. How does the author's use of storm imagery add texture and meaning to the story?

14. What gift does Charlie leave to Joey upon his death? Where does Joey go? When does she come to learn of another part of his legacy: that she is Sukari's guardian? Is this a gift, a burden, or both?

15. What does Joey do when she learns what has happened to Sukari since she left Lynn's home? Do you think she takes the right actions? Why or why not?

16. What strange experience does Joey have in San Francisco? Why do you think the author includes this episode in the story? How does it teach or strengthen Joey?

17. How does Joey work to save Sukari? How does Ruth become her unlikely ally in this effort? What does this show you about their changing relationship? In what ways must Joey continue to assert her independence as she struggles to save Sukari?

18. Where does Joey ultimately find a home for Sukari? What does the future look like for Joey? How has Sukari's life influenced the person Joey can hope to become?

19. While the novel is an impassioned plea for recognizing the rights of nonhuman primates, the news sometimes reports incidents in which primates kept in home environments such as Charlie's, or sanctuary environments, have harmed keepers or others. Does this information change your perspective on the events in the novel? If so, what advice might you have offered Charlie, Lynn, Joey, or others at key moments in the story?

20. What is the meaning of the title,
Hurt Go Happy
? When does Joey realize the significance of this phrase? How might this phrase apply to Joey herself, or to others in the novel?

21. If you were helping develop guidelines for the best ways humans can interact with nonhuman primates, and the rights that nonhuman primates should be given, what are three recommendations you would give?

22. In the Afterword, to whom does
Ginny Rorby
dedicate this novel? Do her words affect your understanding of
Hurt Go Happy
? Are you inspired to advocate for the protection of chimpanzees, or perhaps another cause, after reading this book? Explain your answer.

AFTER READING THE BOOK:
RESEARCH & WRITING ACTIVITIES

The research and writing activities below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (RL.5-8.4) (RL.5-6.5) (RL.6-8.6) (RL.5-8.7) (RL.9-10.4, 11-12.4); (W.5-8.2-3) (W.8.7-8) (W.9-10.2-3, 11-12.2.3) (W.11-12.6-8); (SL.5-8.1, 3) (SL.8.4-5) (SL.9-10.1-5, 11-12.1-5)

A Soundless World

1.   Deafness creates a different experience of the world. Sit quietly for five minutes with your eyes closed, listening to the sounds around you. Do you hear the hum of a computer, the ticking of a clock, wind, rain, laughter, or other sounds? What does each sound mean to you? Write a paragraph describing this experience.

2.   Create a poster featuring this quote from the novel: “Hear with your eyes.” Surround the text with illustrations or other art elements depicting how Joey does this in the novel.

3.   Look back through the text to find passages describing Joey's experience of the world. Which senses does she use to compensate for her deafness? Write a paragraph describing your experience of the classroom or other space in which you are seated right now, focusing on what you see, smell, and feel. Share your writing with friends or classmates and discuss how these paragraphs might have been different had you been allowed to incorporate the sense of hearing.

Sign Language

1.   Go to the library or online to learn more about American Sign Language (ASL) and its role in the deaf world. Practice the ASL alphabet. If possible, try signing with a deaf member of your community—or try signing a conversation with a hearing friend or classmate. Afterward, write a short essay describing the process of trying to learn some basic ASL and your experience trying to communicate through signing. If you have studied a foreign language, compare the experience of learning ASL to that of learning a second spoken language. (Hint: Try visiting
www.aslpro.com
or
www.handspeak.com
.)