Orbiting Jupiter Themes

In Orbiting Jupiter, being a good parent is about more than loving and supporting one’s child: it’s also about putting one’s child’s needs before one’s own. The novel illustrates good parenting by contrasting the behavior of a bad father, Mr. Brook, with that of a good father, Mr. Hurd. It also traces the journey of an unprepared teenaged father, Joseph, as he learns how to be a good parent. Mr. Brook is…

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…

Orbiting Jupiter suggests that for traumatized adolescents to overcome their trauma, they need a small, supportive community that they can trust. One of the novel’s two main characters, Joseph Brook, is a 14-year-old who has experienced considerable trauma. His father, Mr. Brook, beats him. His beloved girlfriend Madeleine dies as a result of giving birth to their baby, Jupiter, whom Joseph is not allowed to see. Finally, at a juvenile detention facility…

Orbiting Jupiter represents true friendship not as a casual social bond but as an intense, loving relationship that involves supporting and sacrificing for one’s friends. 12-year-old Jack Hurd wants to be friends with his 14-year-old foster brother Joseph Brook. When their school bus driver Mr. Haskell insults Joseph, Joseph storms off the bus—and Jack goes too, even though it means walking to school in the cold. That is, Jack sacrifices his own physical comfort…