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Parenthood
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Orbiting Jupiter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Orbiting Jupiter represents adolescence as a transitional state between irresponsible childhood and responsible adulthood: over the course of the novel, 12-year-old Jack Hurd and 14-year-old Joseph Brook learn to take on progressively more responsibility for their action. Moreover, they learn to acknowledge all the ways that they are not yet ready for full adult responsibility. The novel illustrates Jack’s progress from irresponsible childhood to semi-responsible adolescence through two scenes of drowning. When Jack was six, he saw a yellow dog fall through thin river ice and scrabble for purchase. He wanted to save the dog, but his mother, realizing the danger, held him back, and the dog drowned. When Jack is 12, he sees his foster brother Joseph fall through ice on the same river. Rather than avoiding danger and letting Joseph drown, he manages to pull Joseph out of the river, likely saving Joseph’s life. Jack’s actions show his greater responsibility at age 12 than at age six. The novel emphasizes that Jack is only semi-responsible for Joseph, not fully responsible, when Joseph does die in the river due to his father Mr. Brook’s drunk and reckless driving: Jack can save his foster brother from some things, but as a young adolescent, he has neither the responsibility nor the power to save Joseph from dangerous adults.
In the same vein, Joseph begins the novel by irresponsibly claiming that he wants to parent his baby daughter. Jupiter, rather than allowing her to be adopted, even though he lacks the resources and maturity to care for her. Ironically, it is only when Joseph learns some responsibility through working on his foster family’s farm that he realizes he isn’t responsible enough to care for Jupiter—at which point he enters into a tacit agreement with his foster parents, Mr. Hurd and Mrs. Hurd, that they will adopt Jupiter, allowing him to have a relationship with his daughter without taking full adult responsibility for her. Through Jack’s and Joseph’s respective coming-of-age journeys, the novel shows that true maturity is about more than taking responsibility for one’s actions—it’s also about being responsible enough to acknowledge and accept one’s limitations.
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Adolescence and Responsibility ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Adolescence and Responsibility appears in each chapter of Orbiting Jupiter. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Adolescence and Responsibility Quotes in Orbiting Jupiter
Below you will find the important quotes in Orbiting Jupiter related to the theme of Adolescence and Responsibility.
Chapter 1
Quotes
They sent Joseph to Stone Mountain, even though he did what he did because the kid gave him something bad and he swallowed it. But that didn’t matter. They sent him to Stone Mountain anyway.
He won’t talk about what happened to him there. But since he left Stone Mountain, he won’t wear anything orange.
He won’t let anyone stand behind him.
He won’t let anyone touch him.
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“I don’t need the milk,” said my father. He pointed at Rosie. “But she needs you to milk her.”
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Chapter 2
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“You have him shoveling manure, too? Is that what you get out of this? A bunch of kids who have to shovel manure for you?”
The winter I was six, I saw a yellow dog on thin ice on the Alliance. I was with my mother, and we were walking back from a breakfast potluck at First Congregational before it became old First Congregational. The yellow dog was out farther on the ice than Joseph, but not much, and it had fallen through and its eyes were huge and it was grabbing on with its front paws, scratching, looking for something to hold onto. It wasn’t making a sound. I told my mother we had to go get it, but she held my arm so I wouldn’t go down to the river.
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“He came onto the ice for me,” said Joseph.
My father turned his face slowly toward Joseph. “That’s what we’ll be talking about,” he said.
Chapter 3
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“Being responsible,” Mr. Canton said, “means being ready to do what you’re supposed to be doing, even if no one is watching or making you do it. Do you boys understand that?”
Chapter 4
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She never asked him why his face looked so beat up.
He was going to be a father, he said.
He was only thirteen, she said again.
“I’m alone,” he said.
“You’ve got me,” I said.
He laughed, but not a happy laugh. “Jackie, I’m a whole lifetime ahead of you,” he said.
Chapter 5
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“You might get suspended for fighting. All because you were hanging around Joseph Brook. I’m telling you, I know his type. Trouble follows him like a yellow dog.”
“I’ve seen what happens to yellow dogs,” I said.
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“Would you have left a guy being beat up to go find a teacher?” I asked.
My father, he wiped his hand across his face, and what was left behind was a smile.
Really, a smile.
“Not in a million years,” he said.
Chapter 7
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“But he can’t love her just for himself. He has to love her for her, too.”
Chapter 9
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“Jackie,” said Jupiter.
“That’s right,” I said. “Jackie.”
