is false His real identity is not secure This is the root of his crisis Mildred s Insult Creates Identity Crisis In Scene Three Mildred Douglas enters the stokehole She is a rich girl in white clothes When she sees Yank she cries Oh the filthy beast Then she faints This insult destroys Yank He feels less than human Before he thought he was a hero Now he feels like an ape His isolation begins here Paddy sings of freedom Long speaks of class But Yank only feels shame Mildred s one word starts his crisis of identity and rejection Isolation in Fifth Avenue and Prison In Scene Five Yank goes to Fifth Avenue The rich people walk out of the church Long tells him to fight through politics But Yank only wants revenge He shouts at the rich He pushes them He even hits a gentleman The police arrest him In prison on Blackwell s Island Yank feels like an animal He tells his story to other prisoners They laugh at him He tries to bend the bars He fails Guards beat him He feels trapped This shows his deep isolation and broken identity Rejection in the I W W Office Increases Isolation In Scene Seven Yank goes to the I W W office He wants to join the workers At first they welcome him But when he speaks of blowing up the Steel Trust they suspect him They push him out A policeman also rejects him Yank Say where do I go from here Policeman Go to hell This moment is full rejection The rich class rejects Yank The poor workers reject him The law rejects him He is totally isolated He has no identity in society The Zoo and the Final Identity Crisis The last scene is in the Zoo Yank looks at the gorilla He feels they are the same He opens the cage The gorilla crushes him He feels rejected again and says Christ where do I get off at Where do I fit in He dies inside the cage This is the final crisis of identity He wanted to belong somewhere But he belongs nowhere Even the animal he trusted killed him His isolation is total His identity is lost forever The Hairy Ape is a story of identity crisis and isolation Yank begins with pride in the stokehole Mildred calls him a beast In Fifth Avenue in prison and in the I W W office society rejects him Finally in the Zoo even the gorilla kills him His tragic journey proves that in modern industrial society workers lose both identity and place