of a machine His body is strong but his soul is shrinking This is the first step of human regression Mildred s Insult- Man Reduced to Animal When Mildred Douglas visits the stokehole she sees Yank She cries Oh the filthy beast Then she faints The words cut deep To her rich eyes the worker is not human He is dirty sweaty and looks like an ape Yank who thought he was the engine of the world begins to believe he is only an animal Here we see industrialization has reduced man from human to beast in the eyes of society Fifth Avenue- The Worker Cannot Belong Yank goes to Fifth Avenue New York He sees clean rich people after church He tries to shout but they ignore him He pushes and even hits a gentleman The police arrest him His dirty body does not fit the rich street The industrial worker has no place among the rich He is out of society He is treated like a wild animal making trouble This is a regression from citizen to outsider Prison and I W W - The Cage of Regression In Blackwell s Island prison Yank compares men to animals in cages He tries to bend the iron bars but fails Guards beat him He is powerless Later in the I W W office workers first welcome him But when he talks of blowing up the Steel Trust they reject him as a spy Even his own class does not accept him A policeman also behaves like this Yank Say where do I go from here Policeman Go to hell Industrial society has broken him He is neither a man nor a worker He is only a rejected creature The Gorilla- Final Regression In the Zoo Yank stands before the gorilla He feels they are the same He opens the cage The gorilla hugs him breaks his ribs and throws him inside He says Christ where do I get off at Where do I fit in He dies in the cage This is the final regression He begins as a proud worker He ends as a dead ape Industrialization destroys his humanity and leaves him with only death The Hairy Ape shows human regression under machines Paddy remembers free sailing days Long speaks of politics Mildred insults the worker The Fifth Avenue crowd ignores him The prison locks him like an animal The I W W rejects him Finally the gorilla kills him Yank s fall proves O Neill s message industrialization makes men lose dignity freedom and even their humanity