Pet

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapter 9-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

The next afternoon, Jam braids her hair and talks to Pet in her room. Bitter and Aloe don’t know that Pet wasn’t sent back into the painting. Pet and Jam discuss how to hunt down the monster. Jam thinks that she can simply drop Pet off at Redemption’s house, but Pet tells her that she must be the one to see the monster for who it is. Pet will do the rest. Jam goes to the movies with Redemption like she does every weekend. Though Redemption senses something wrong, he does not push Jam for more information.

After, Jam and Redemption go to Redemption’s house. There, they see Moss, Redemption’s younger brother, and Redemption’s three parents: Malachite, Beloved, and Whisper. Whisper is in a polyamorous relationship with Malachite and Beloved, who are Redemption’s biological mother and father, respectively. Redemption’s house is full of uncles and their children. Later, Malachite’s sister, Glass, arrives with Redemption and Moss’s Uncle Hibiscus for dinner. Moss does not like to be touched and runs in and out of the house, accidentally scraping up his arms. Moss refuses to let Whisper clean his scrapes. The house is loud and lively, and Jam is unable to see how a monster could live there. Jam resolves to tell Pet that it has made a mistake.

Chapter 6 Summary

Pet appears next to Jam as she is walking home. Pet tells Jam that she is wrong about Redemption’s house, and that others will not be able to see the monster because they don’t know to look for it. Pet explains that Jam is afraid to confront the monster because doing so will disrupt the peace in Lucille, a place that has seemed safe since the revolution. Pet tells Jam that the truth exists despite Jam’s fears and desires, and that the monstrous thing happening in Redemption’s house will continue without Jam’s intervention. Jam decides to see what is truly there, instead of what she wants to see. That night, Jam shows Redemption a picture of the old depictions of angels in religious texts. Jam and Redemption discuss how the human angels decided who was or wasn’t a monster. Jam suggests that the angels watched people’s actions. Redemption wonders how “the angels […] ﬁgured out how to ﬁnd the [monsters] that weren’t so obvious” as the “police and the billionaires” (85).

Redemption and Jam decide to go to the library and research the revolution. Pet tells Jam that it is proud of her.

Chapter 7 Summary

Jam feels more and more disconnected from her parents, unable to forgive them for dismissing Pet and her fears so quickly. Pet can inhabit a separate mirror world from Jam’s reality, so when Bitter comes into the bathroom she does not see Pet, and Jam sees two separate bathrooms in her mind. Pet encourages Jam to tell Redemption about their mission. Jam agrees to do so, but only if Pet does not read Redemption’s mind like it does with her. Pet explains, “We are connected, little girl. I would not enter the thoughts of any other human” (93).

Pet thinks that Jam should also tell Redemption that the monster is at his house specifically, but Jam wants to spare Redemption that heartache for as long as possible. Jam has a panic attack over Redemption’s possible reactions to the truth, and Pet hugs her to calm her down. Jam invites Redemption over to the studio and tells Redemption everything except that the monster is at his house. Redemption believes Jam without hesitation. Jam feels guilty for not telling Redemption the whole truth, but Pet consoles her.

Chapter 8 Summary

Pet reveals itself to Redemption in the studio, who is overcome with awe and excitement. Pet sulks at Redemption’s open ogling, and Jam tells Redemption to calm down. They all walk together to the library. Pet becomes invisible again to avoid Redemption’s staring, but Jam can still feel Pet walking beside her. Redemption says that he fears Pet, but he trusts Jam that Pet won’t harm them. Jam asks Ube, the librarian, for information on monsters. Ube refuses to help them until Jam tells Ube that they’re searching for family monsters at Pet’s urging. Redemption doesn’t see what Jam signs to Ube, so Redemption is confused by Ube’s sudden worry. Pet tells Jam that they cannot tell Ube where the monster is, just in case Ube goes to Redemption’s house and scares the monster further into hiding. Jam tells Ube that they’re researching to learn more about the time before the revolution. Ube believes that information is important and gives Jam and Redemption pamphlets on child abuse, drug use, and parental neglect to read in the archive. Redemption exclaims while reading about child abuse and tells Jam that his younger brother Moss displays signs of a child who is being abused.

Chapters 5-8 Analysis

In this portion of the novel, Emezi’s motif of the Seen and the Unseen explores a community’s relationship to knowledge and the things that people can know. In an example of dramatic irony, Redemption tells Jam the night before they go to the library, “All knowledge is good knowledge” (86). While Redemption declares that all knowledge is inherently good, Jam is simultaneously debating her decision to keep the monster’s location from him, afraid of hurting Redemption by sharing this knowledge. Learning the monster’s location upends Jam’s world. Jam resists the loss of her innocence, and she initially does not wish to see what is unseen, as Pet demands, or to know what is unknown. By temporarily shielding Redemption from this knowledge, Jam believes that she is keeping him from unavoidable heartbreak. Emezi presents knowledge as a force that fundamentally changes a person, writing, “[Jam] just wanted to be herself, the self she was before Pet showed up and started making her look for unseen and unknown things” (85). Though monsters symbolize all different types of evils and injustices, Pet also functions as an allegory for systemic and institutional ills that exist in the real world. Jam’s wish to return to who she was before she learned to see the real state of the world and people around her is impossible. The adults of Lucille who perpetuate the lie that monsters do not exist blind themselves to the truth in order to preserve their sense of self and safety.

Emezi emphasizes the importance of seeing, of bearing witness, and trying to correct a wrong instead of ignoring it. Pet tells Jam, “the truth does not care about what you want; the truth is what it is […] it is not a blade of grass to be bent by the wind of your hopes and desires” (81). In Pet, the Truth is an objective thing that exists regardless of the characters’ ability to perceive it. Emezi uses this portrayal of an objective truth as an allegory for contemporary social issues; ignoring societal evils only to allows them to flourish. Through Redemption’s uncertainty, Emezi depicts how painful it can be to confront the truth, how unprepared people may be to encounter the monstrous. Redemption says, “Maybe I’m wrong […] Maybe I’m making it all up, you know? It could be nothing” (111). The scene in the library is not an indictment of Redemption’s denial and fear but a condemnation of Lucille’s complacency. The community’s refusal to admit that monsters may still exist actually creates more opportunities for monsters to do harm and—perhaps most importantly—leaves people unprepared to identify the signs of harm and safeguard the most vulnerable.