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Themes
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.
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 a thoroughly bad parent to his son Joseph. He fails to love Joseph, beating him and disparaging his intelligence. He also fails to support Joseph, verbally undermining Joseph’s hope of going to college. Moreover, he puts his own needs before Joseph’s, as when he arranges an adoption for Joseph’s baby daughter, Jupiter—without Joseph’s knowledge and against his wishes—in order to make money. Ultimately, Mr. Brook kills Joseph with his drunk and reckless driving, a tragic end to Joseph’s life that emphasizes how destructive a bad parent can be to his child.
By contrast, Joseph’s foster father Mr. Hurd loves Joseph, supports him, and puts Joseph’s needs before his own. Mr. Hurd illustrates every element of good parenting when he puts all the money he receives from the state for fostering Joseph into a college fund for Joseph. Even though Mr. Hurd, a small organic farmer, could presumably use the money to defray the expenses of caring for Joseph, he judges Joseph’s need for a college fund as more important than his own household expenses.
Finally, 14-year-old Joseph deeply loves his baby daughter Jupiter, but he initially he puts his own emotional needs (to meet Jupiter in order to retain a connection to Jupiter’s dead mother Madeleine) over Jupiter’s need for adult adoptive parents who have the knowledge, resources, and maturity to care for her. It is only after Joseph sees good parenting modeled by Mr. Hurd, Mrs. Hurd, and Jupiter’s foster mother the librarian that he recognizes that being a good father to Jupiter means letting caring adults parent her. Through the examples of Mr. Hurd, Mr. Brook, and Joseph, the novel presents the ideal parent as person who not only loves and supports their child, but also puts their child’s needs above their own.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Parenthood ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Parenthood appears in each chapter of Orbiting Jupiter. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Get the entire Orbiting Jupiter LitChart as a printable PDF.
Parenthood Quotes in Orbiting Jupiter
Below you will find the important quotes in Orbiting Jupiter related to the theme of Parenthood.
Chapter 1
Quotes
“I don’t need the milk,” said my father. He pointed at Rosie. “But she needs you to milk her.”
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“I always know where Jupiter is.”
Chapter 2
Quotes
“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?”
“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
Quotes
“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
Quotes
Madeleine Joyce was thirteen years old when she met Joseph Brook. She lived in a house that had pillars in the front and a wing on each side and statues on the lawn. Her father and her mother were both lawyers, so she spent a lot of time by herself in that big house when she wasn’t away at her prep school. Sometimes she had a nanny who lived in the north guesthouse, sometimes not.
He was going to be a father, he said.
He was only thirteen, she said again.
Chapter 5
Quotes
“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 6
Quotes
You know what happened when Mr. Brook put his hand on Joseph’s back?
Joseph flinched.
But he went into the living room with his father anyway.
“And who do you think you’re kidding? You know you’ve got a sweet deal going. You get your check from the state every month to keep my kid. You’re in this for the money.” He pointed to Joseph. “You know you’re just a job for them? You are nothing but income.”
Chapter 7
Quotes
“But he can’t love her just for himself. He has to love her for her, too.”
Chapter 9
Quotes
“Jackie,” said Jupiter.
“That’s right,” I said. “Jackie.”
