The Zoo Story | Teaching Key Figures

Character Descriptions

This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.

Characters

Jerry - This character is the antagonist and is a man in his late thirties, not poorly dressed, but carelessly. He lives in a four-story brownstone rooming house on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.

Peter - This character is the protagonist and is a man in his early forties, neither fat nor gaunt, neither handsome nor homely. He is married, has two daughters, cats, and two parakeets.