A Report to an Academy

After being shot and taken captive aboard the ship, Red Peter was locked in a small cage. It was “no four-sided cage with bars, but only three walls fixed to a crate, so that the crate constituted the fourth wall” (2). There was not enough space for Red Peter to stand up or comfortably sit down, so he “crouched with bent knees, which shook all the time” (3). When trying to turn, the bars would cut his flesh. This cage is symbolic of how Red Peter deludes himself about his captors’ benevolence.

Red Peter notes, “People consider such confinement of wild animals beneficial in the very first period of time, and today I cannot deny, on the basis of my own experience, that in a human sense that is, in fact, the case” (3). This establishes a pattern in which he credits his captors for the effectiveness of their work.

While confined, Red Peter managed to achieve an inner calm, which he believes is the only reason that he managed to persist. Rather than credit himself for this achievement, he instead declares that he “owe[s] that calmness to the people on the ship” (4). At this point, he has started to believe that his captors cared for him in an altruistic manner.