Throughout the first two sections in the book, we have seen a couple of very important interactions between Old Nick and Jack, and I think that there "relationship" is a very complex and intricate one. First off, we do hear Old Nick refer to Jack as coming from Old Nick, so we can conclude that Old Nick is Jack's father. But from there the relationship gets a lot more complicated. First off, as far as we can tell Old Nick has never interacted with Jack before the beginning of this novel, which seems to imply that Old Nick does not have any emotional attachment to Jack. However, when Old Nick finds about about Jack's birthday, he brings Jack a toy car (which was probably not cheap, especially considering that Old Nick had been recently laid off). This toy car can be seen as a sord of bribery to make Jack like Old Nick more, but it also can be seen as some sort of fatherly duty. We also know that Old Nick buys "Sunday Treats" for Jack and also has never hurt him in the 5 years since Jack was born. We don't have enough facts to conclude whether or not Old Nick has any affection for Jack, or if his motives behind his seemingly kind gestures are solely for nefarious purposes.
Jack's view of Old Nick is even more complicated, as Jack doesn't have a category to put Old Nick in, since Jack doesn't realize that other humans exist besides Ma and himself. Jack tries to connect Old Nick to a god like figure, when he asks Ma why they thank God instead of Old Nick, when Old Nick is the one who brings them food and stuff. But later, after Old Nick hurts Ma, Jack seems to truly hate Old Nick, and threatens to "hurt" Old Nick if Old Nick ever tries to hurt Ma again. Jacks opinions throughout the first chapter and into the second one seem to be mixed about Old Nick, but by the time Ma and Jack begin discussing escaping, Jack seems to utterly hate and fear Old Nick, and there is nothing left of the perhaps awe or thankfulness Jack had for the Sunday treats or the toy car.
I suspect that as Jack begins to figure out how evil Old Nick is, Jack will begin to hate him even more, but at least for the first two chapters, Jack's view of Old Nick seems to be going up and down, and Jack's lack of understanding of concepts of what we consider the real world does not help him when he is trying to figure out how to view Old Nick. I'll be interested to see how this relationship evolves in the rest of the book, as Jack begins to realize that Old Nick is truly a despicable person.
I wasn't quite sure what to think of Old Nick bringing Jack the toy car and the Sunday treats, except maybe as a way to irritate Ma and make her feel lesser because she can't provide those things for her son. It's like Old Nick is showing off that he's in control, and it also adds to his whole game of playing the pestered husband whose wife demands so much from him. I don't really see it as him trying to win affection from Jack, although the scene where Ma cries over Jack's "dead" body did make me think he was at least a little sorry that Jack "died" (although probably also relieved he wouldn't have to deal with an older Jack).
ReplyDeleteGood post. I'm also interested in how Jack's concept of good and evil progress from this point, as Ma hasn't really been in a situation where she could fully explain certain ideas in what we might see as a key aspect of child-rearing. A character like Jack definitely has a lot of interesting, unpredictable outcomes.
ReplyDeleteMa is in a really tough position w/r/t Old Nick and how she talks about him to Jack. Part of her task is to shield him (for now) from a real understanding of their predicament, and as a result, she can't really let on what a total villain/antagonist he is. And it's understandable that Jack would come to see him as a God/Santa Claus kind of figure who brings him presents and treats.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I sense such relief in Ma as she finally fills Jack in on the whole story. His limited moral universe can understand what's wrong about Nick's kidnapping of Ma (Dora has taught him about "swiping"), and now he can view Nick as the villain he is. Ma does a heroic thing by allowing Jack to start to grow up in a relative state of innocence, but it's a risky balancing act to maintain, as the fiction she projects means depicting Nick in a not-totally-nefarious light.