Jacob Coote Character Analysis

Jacob Coote is Josie’s boyfriend for much of the novel. They’re the same age; he attends and is the school captain of Cook High School, a public school in Sydney. When they were children, Jacob and a group of his friends accosted Josie and threw eggs and rotting produce at her for being Italian. As young adults, Josie initially struggles to reconcile this memory with the handsome, charming young man in front of her. Jacob is a compelling orator, though he doesn’t have the skill or polish of someone on a debate team (like Josie or John Barton). But after seeing Jacob speak at Have a Say Day, Josie develops a crush on him. Jacob rides a motorcycle, wears T-shirts emblazoned with crude language, and is perfectly happy looking forward to a decidedly middle-class future. He takes issue with Josie’s Italian heritage, her involved family, and her insistence that he speak correctly. Differences like these cause Josie and Jacob to fight regularly. This often takes the form of screaming matches in public—though they almost always make up right after. Jacob is also jealous and possessive, so he takes issue with Josie’s friendship with John. As Jacob and Josie they get to know each other, he shares more about himself: his mother died of cancer five years before the novel begins, and he lives with his single father, Mr. Coote. He and his family aren’t concerned about premarital sex or having babies out of wedlock, which is one of the reasons he tries to convince Josie they should have sex. Josie remains firm in her desire not to. It hits Jacob hard when John commits suicide—it impresses upon Jacob how essential it is to have dreams to work for and keep a person motivated. At the end of the novel, Jacob breaks up with Josie, insisting that they need to figure out who they are separately. Josie believes that Jacob has become more driven as a result of her relationship—and she also believes that they’ll get back together someday.