Jahren’s Son Character Analysis in Lab Girl

Before her son was born, Jahren was worried that she would not be able to give a child all of her love; however, she adores her son, and he has changed her outlook on parenting. After a grueling pregnancy that involved hospital stays and electroconvulsive therapy (she couldn’t take her bipolar medication during pregnancy due to health risks for the baby), Jahren delivered a healthy nine-pound baby boy, whom she immediately fell in love with. Her son is different from her in many ways: he uses his favorite tree, the foxtail palm, for batting practice rather than scientific inquiry, and is more emotionally balanced like Clint, while Jahren is more emotionally tumultuous.

Jahren’s Son Quotes in Lab Girl

The Lab Girl quotes below are all either spoken by Jahren’s Son or refer to Jahren’s Son. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Knopf edition of Lab Girl published in 2016.

When I wake, I hold my baby and I think about how he is my second opal that I can forever draw a circle around and point to as mine.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 228

Explanation and Analysis:

While I am too impulsive and aggressive to think of myself as a proper woman, I will also never fully shake this dull, false belief that I am something less than a man.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 256

Explanation and Analysis:

Jahren’s Son Character Timeline in Lab Girl

The timeline below shows where the character Jahren’s Son appears in Lab Girl. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...very painful despite the epidural—but once it is done, Jahren is holding her new, nine-pound son. Surprisingly, Jahren is in love with this baby; she spends the next few days just... (full context)

Jahren is living in Norway with Clint and her son, on a Fulbright grant to study tree memory. Scientists have found that saplings that have... (full context)

After the birth of her son, Jahren’s professional life somehow got easier, and she began to receive grants from the National... (full context)

Jahren’s son also has his favorite tree, a foxtail palm that he regularly hits with a baseball... (full context)

Jahren was worried that she would not be able to love her son enough, but now that he exists, she believes that she loves him more than he... (full context)

...enjoying the luxury of it, when Jahren realized that she had to pick up her son from school and take him to the beach. (full context)

As they play in the sand, Jahren’s son asks if there are animals so small they are invisible to humans, and Jahren tells... (full context)

Jahren brings her son home and makes dinner just as Clint arrives home from work as well, and they... (full context)

Jahren’s son asks if she will be going back to the lab that night, and Jahren says... (full context)