Significance of Monkeys

Monkeys are the primal and uncorrupted version of humans. The monkeys at the beginning of the novel are victims of a fight that they had no say in. Ironically, this same analogy applies to the crew of the Gilgamesh. While Kern attempts to mock them by calling them worthless monkeys, she is not completely wrong. The humans on the Gilgamesh are monkeys lost in space after a war they had no part in destroyed their planet. Just as Kern wants to raise her monkeys her way, she eventually gives these humans a chance on her planet with the spider’s help.