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Holly Wengel
Professor Noon
Foundations of Writing
24 March 2016
Project Nim
Language and communication is the key to civilization, this is what separates us from the
animals. Herb Terrace wanted to test first hand if humans could communicate with animals, so
he set up a study. This was made into a movie directed by James Marsh, called Project Nim.
Naturally, they used a chimp for the experiment because they are the closest to humans in
genetics. The movie is all about Nim’s life and all the different struggles he goes through and
the different places he goes. In the interview with James Marsh (the director of Project Nim),
called “Of Chimps and Humans,” he makes several key points, particularly concerning power,
natural instinct, and language.
Marsh brings up power a lot when he is referring to how the humans and Nim interact.
Nim doesn’t have very much power when it comes to controlling the humans, but he is very
manipulative. If they wanted Nim to sign he would need to get something in return, such as
granola or yogurt. Nim was always testing his human instructors to see how much he could get
away with, like with Stephanie’s husband Wer; Jenny Stephanie’s daughter says this “Nim wants
to deal with him, he wants Stephanie for himself. He doesn’t want another male figure in his
world.”(6) I saw this a lot in the movie, Nim would torture Wer just to show his dominance of
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power. I feel that whenever Nim saw his chance to make another male look or feel inferior he
took it, especially with Herb and Wer.
Natural instinct goes right along with power in Nim’s case, Marsh says “the chimpanzees
have a very clear culture of dominance in their natural environment; the males are hard wired to
test and mess with each other and to seek dominance.”(6) Marsh feels that Terrace should have
handled the experiment differently, instead of letting Nim be himself “Terrace is saying no, no:
let us nurture him, let us isolate him from all the things he want to be with, the trees, the grass,
and let is stick him in a little box and drill him with words.”(7) Marsh really believes that
Terrace was “trying to make Nim into something that he wasn’t.”(7) I completely agree with the
director, Terrace was not as much concerned with Nim as he was with making a ground breaking
discovery. I feel that everyone that worked with Nim looked at him as a part of their family, and
Terrace just looked at him as an experiment that would make him rich. Marsh says “that’s the
tragedy of Nim’s life; his instincts are such that he can’t live with people, yet we brought him
into our world.”(6) I think this is sad because it’s completely true; they raised him as one of their
own, and then when they got what they needed from him they dropped him right off where he
started.
In his interview Marsh repeatedly brings up the symbol of language and what it means to
him. Marsh says “language is common to every human civilization. It’s so much a part of how
our intelligence is able to mold the world.”(7) I had never given it much thought but I think
language is the building block of humanity; it’s what separates us from the animals. Marsh
depicted the words Nim learned in the movie by making a big timeline, the bigger words were
the ones that Nim used most often. Above all the most used word was “play” (7); this was really
symbolic to the director. The reason Marsh liked the word so much is because Nim made it up
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himself, he says “that, for me, was very revealing and almost beautiful idea, that he invents the
one concept that we both understand, play.”(7) I find it sad that all Nim wants to do is play and
instead they have him locked up in a room most of the day learning. Marsh thinks that “play is a
very interesting word generally; it’s about a kind of stress free collaboration. He doesn’t want to
sit down and talk about his problems or his feelings; he wants to play.”(7) I think it’s very
touching that Marsh went that deep and really thought about how Nim feels. When Nim got to
the age of five Herb knew he was getting too strong for the instructors to handle, so he made the
decision to send him away. After many years of being without his teachers and being locked up
in a cage Bob (one of Nim’s instructors) came to visit him. At first Nim doesn’t move and then
he begins to make the sign for play. Marsh says “it’s the one moment that even I became quite
emotional in seeing because it’s so poignant, not only because he makes the sign but because of
what the sign means.”(7) I know exactly how Marsh feels because I know whenever I’m away
from home for a long time and my dogs get to see me, the only thing they want to do is play. I
feel that play is a very universal sign that goes hand in hand with happiness and excitement.
The main goal of the experiment was to see if chimpanzees could communicate to
humans using complete sentences. Terrace said the project was a failure “Nim may have learned
to sign, but he could not construct sentences. He was a brilliant beggar.”(4) Marsh believes that
Terrace’s question was very narrow and thinks the questions should have been “whether we can
understand what he wants and he needs, what he’s communicating to us.”(6) I completely agree
with Marsh I feel like Terrace is making it sound like the whole experiment was a big waste of
time. Marsh argues “it took him two years to figure out that Nim didn’t make sentence. But this
had to do with data, and not with anything he saw with his own eyes.”(7) I feel like Terrace
cheated Nim and everyone who was involved with this experiment. He went on for two years
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making everyone feel like they were making this great progress and then he just shut them down
and ended the experiment. He did a dirty thing by taking all the hard work these people put in
and flushing it right down the toilet. In the interview with James Marsh (the director of Project
Nim), called “Of Chimps and Humans,” he makes several key points, particularly concerning
power, natural instinct, and language.
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Works Cited
Lucia, Cynthis, and Dan Lybarger. “Of Chimps And Humans: An Interview with James Marsh.”
Cineaste 36.3 (2011): 4-9. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Sept. 2011
Project Nim. Dir. James Marsh. Roadside Attractions. 2012. DVD