This section of the reading was riddled with familiar themes, new ideas and draining prospects for all characters, but especially for Jack. Jack's feelings of emptiness from the very beginning of the book prefaced his despair and unsettled personality. This section of the reading brought those themes even more to the forefront of the story, tying up some of his loose thoughts, and confronting the reader with his hollow ideology. Even though Jack is still a shaky person, he begins to grasp a hold of things in his life that have haunted him. It all started back in the very beginning with his lack of self confidence and simply not feeling like he was good enough to get out of bed in the morning. "For the present, I could lie there and know I didn't have to get up and feel the holy emptiness and blessed fatigue of a saint after the dark night of the soul" (140). Jack is so sheltered, and so afraid in life. He is the main character, but in a way he doesn't have an identity. Whether he was lying awake for hours on end contemplating life or agreeing to lie down on his mother's lap to provide and get some sort of affection, he is absent from the outside happenings. When he finally finds Anne, he feels like he has some sort of affection but when she leaves the house empty, Jack feels the same absence and emptiness as before. "I was suddenly aware of the emptiness of the house, the dark rooms and the attic, spilling thickly but weightlessly down the stairs, and aware of the darkness outside...I felt new blood coursing through me as though somebody had opened a sluice gate" (408). This demonstrates the panic and loneliness that Jack feels. He isn't able to feel whole again because he has no sense of identity. The unmotivated and uninspired Jack is impaired in the way that he is a prisoner in his own mind. He cannot escape his bed, nor the dark house because psychologically, he doesn't allow himself freedom, and instead, allows fear to drive him. Both the deaths of the Judge and Willie isolate Jack further in that people are vanishing out of his control. Because of the deaths, he is no longer in control of his isolation. He chose not to get out of bed, and chose not to leave the dark house. He is afraid to feel or do anything and it's frustrating to read about. It's also hard to say why he doesn't do anything about the emptiness he feels, but as the Boss said to him, "you've got to start somewhere" (540). This section of the reading makes a full circle as it references the same house with the same rain falling outside and the knock at the door. Jack finally breaks the cycle of isolation. "When I got outdoors I discovered that it had begun to rain. The clean, pale sunlight of the morning was gone now" (541). Even if he still has fear and internal pain, this section has been crucial to understanding why Jack thinks the way he does. The absence of characters brings up the motif of absence in Jack's own life, and that becomes a unique revelation for Jack and the reader.
(Wow sorry this got way long!) :)
Jack's emptiness and lack of identity are really fascinating themes, and there is so much good evidence here! It is interesting to look at how the deaths of people around Jack effect him; how he is further isolated by these events in the long term, but has a burst of thoughts, ideas, and emotions immediately after the "great blow" (495) of the death. For example, after the Judge dies, Jack comes upon the idea that "either killing or creating may be a crime punishable by death, and the death always comes by the criminal's own hand and every man is a suicide. If a man know how to live he would never die" (492). The deaths of people in Jack's life cause Jack to withdraw, but also bring him to revelations deep issues.
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