Running Symbol Analysis

Throughout the novel, running is an ongoing symbol of freedom and escape. At the start of the story, as Jesse Aarons (or “Jess,” as his friends and family call him) prepares for the start of the new school year, he is determined to become the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He trains daily, determined to prove himself to his classmates on the first day of school. Running, however, is also a way for Jess to escape from the confines of his claustrophobic household, in which his sisters get preferential treatment while Jess himself constantly draws his parents’ ire for being behind on chores—and for engaging in another hobby which is stereotypically feminine: painting. Running is a way in which Jess can both prove his masculinity while also escaping the power structures which demand it, and he is sure that if he can just be recognized at the fastest runner at school, all of his troubles will evaporate. Running, then, is a symbol of the attempt to escape one’s circumstances, one’s fate, or even oneself—and indeed, later in the novel, when Jess endures a terrible tragedy, he attempts to literally run away from the bad news he’s received, only to realize that one can only outrun one’s demons for so long.