On a spring day in 1977, a long sigh came from the University of Tennessee. It was Professor Lynn's helpless sigh, and she was worried about a new research topic—is it congenital heredity, or is it acquired environment that determines human behavior? It is not easy to confirm this question, and she is looking at the sky in distress, but she really can't find a suitable research subject.
Just as Lynn was about to give up, she casually flipped through a magazine and her eyes suddenly lit up. I saw a photo of a newborn orangutan at the Primate Research Center in the magazine, which said that it was "97% genetically similar to humans".
As a result, little Shattke was adopted by Professor Lynn from the research center. Shattleck, who has been imprisoned in the laboratory since birth, finally ushered in the first spring of his life.
Under Lynn's care, Shattle gradually adapted to the life of human society and began a happy time that it had never had since it was born.
Under Lynn's careful tutelage, Shattuck gradually adapted to human life. Clever it learned its first sign language word – "mom" – in just a few months and quickly mastered more than 150 sign language words with Lynn's ecstatic encouragement.
Not only has his language skills developed rapidly, but the baby orangutan has gradually adapted to the complex rules of human society, learning to sit upright and pay attention to lectures. Watching Shattle grow day by day, the pride in Lynn's heart grew day by day.
Five years later, Shattle successfully graduated from kindergarten and was brought into the University of Tennessee by Lynn. There, Shattle was the envy and affection of students from all walks of life.
This sign language-only orangutan college student rides his bicycle around campus and lives a happy Xi life that many people envy.
However, the good times did not last long, and an unexpected attack incident turned Shattuck and Lynn's lives 180 degrees around. The university authorities resolutely sent Shattuck back to the research center, no matter how much Lynn pleaded.
The cage-like research center became the only home for Shattuck's long years to come.
The moment he was forced back to the research center, Shattle was teary-eyed and desperate as he looked at his mother, Lynn, in the distance. It shook the cage in resentment, only to receive a tranquilizer.
From this moment on, the days of freedom were cut off, and the rest of Shattuck's life became the whole thing.
In the cold iron cage, Shattle curled up in the corner of the wall in a silent daze, sitting for hours at a time, depression gradually enveloping its heart.
Lynn drove to visit every week, and she was saddened to find that Shattle was looking haggard, languishing, and her shiny hair had lost its life. Shattuck, on the other hand, would rekindle his desire for freedom the moment he saw Lynn, tearfully begging her in sign language to open the iron door and take him home.
However, Lynn was still unable to do anything, and could only look at Shattuck's desperate eyes and leave lonely.
After 11 years, Shattuck was finally allowed to transfer to the zoo in Atlanta. Lynn was ecstatic to tell Shattuck that there would be its kind of friends there. However, Shattke's new home did not bring any comfort, and his time at the zoo was more bleak, lonely, and empty than his time at the research center.
Time flies, and the once lively and intelligent Shattle is already dying. It curled up in a corner of the zoo's cage, its expression languishing, its hair gray, its eyes dull, and its remaining vitality passing away little by little.
Lynn continued to visit as she had done before, and she was saddened to find that Shattleck's sign language skills had deteriorated so badly that she could not speak simple words fluently.
"It's been tormented by this long 30 years of life, my child, do you still recognize me as a mother?" Lynn thought silently with red eyes.
One day, Shattle trembled and handed the aging Lynn a small iron ring, a sign of her childhood labor earned in exchange for a prize. Shattle drew a word – "ice cream".
It turns out that in the last moments of life, it still has a nostalgia for a little bit of happiness, even if it is just a memory.
However, fate has never favored this miserable life. As the deadline approached, Shattle took his last breath on the zoo's icy concrete floor, and the lights of life were extinguished.
It was only 39 years old when it died, which is the prime of life for a normal orangutan.
When the news of Shattuck's death came, the schoolgirl who had suffered from it finally mustered up the courage to come forward and tell the truth - many years ago, Shattuck didn't attack herself, she just wanted to play with people, but unfortunately her strength was a little too strong for her to scream in fear.
A lie, misunderstanding and prejudice deprived this innocent orangutan of 30 years of freedom in life.
How can human beings deprive others of their rights and dignity? Just because they are different in race and skin color, they can trample on the life of a primate?
Shattle has never had the power to choose, it is destined to live the fate of human design. When it finally Xi gets used to human life, it can never go back to the way it was; When it was sent to its kind, their world was foreign to Shattleke.
The so-called "wild" does not exist for Shattleke. The moment it was born, it was imprisoned in a laboratory and left to be slaughtered. And the ephemeral human life was wiped out after a lie.
However, in this long process, who hurt Shattuck and who gave it warmth? The answer is self-explanatory.
We will never know what kind of struggles and pains we have experienced in the silent heart of Shattleck. It may ask itself: Am I an orangutan, or am I a human, and is its attachment to the world worth it?
Is the nature of human beings tolerant or prejudiced, friendly or cruel? Don't be arrogant and make mistakes to determine the fate of others.
Shattuck is gone, may he no longer be tormented by this absurd fate in the next life, and be a truly free orangutan, living in the sun and the forest. Perhaps, this is exactly what it is.
Shattuck's life is a mirror of the progress of human civilization.
It didn't deserve such a fate, it was a lively and happy primate. However, prejudice and arrogance imprisoned its soul, and eventually died in despair.
Each of us should introspect and reflect on ourselves, and not judge a life lightly. If you don't deprive others of their dignity and rights because of their race or skin color, that will cast a shadow over civilization itself.
This is the terrifying life of an orangutan who is incompatible with human society, but its tragedy hints at the frivolity of human nature. May one day, true love and freedom come, and no more life like Shattle will be trampled and desolate by fate.