Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Boy Jack, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bravery, Duty, and Honor
Parental Expectations
Patriotism and the British Empire
Loss and Resilience
Summary
Analysis
At home that evening, Jack sneaks into the drawing room and takes out a pack of cigarettes he’s hidden in a book. He talks to himself as he does this, muttering that he hates this room and that he has had a terrible day. As he harshly imitates his father telling him to “buck up,” he realizes his older sister, Elsie, is in the room. Together, they recite a passage from Rudyard’s “Just So Stories,” then talk about how their father has taken the news that the army turned Jack away. He’s upset, Elsie tells Jack, but not necessarily angry at Jack himself. Jack then tells Elsie that he’s determined to join the army—one way or another.
This scene is the first time in the play that Jack freely expresses his feelings. Because his father is so overbearing, it’s not all that surprising that Jack speaks critically about him. Given Jack’s criticism of his father, however, his desire to join the army is unexpected—his ambition, it seems, isn’t just to please his father. Rather, Jack legitimately wants to enlist, even if he finds his father’s constant encouragement exhausting and domineering.
Themes
Jack reveals that he hates living in this house. It’s dark and uncomfortable, and he can hardly take it anymore. He asks Elsie if she ever wishes she could just be somebody else. But then he specifies what he means, saying that what he really wants is to just be himself, which would, in some ways, be like becoming someone else. He abandons this line of thinking when Elsie admits she doesn’t understand what he means.
On a certain level, Jack and Rudyard are on the same page, at least insofar as they both want Jack to join the army. Now, though, it becomes apparent that Jack wants to do join for reasons that have little to do with Rudyard’s ideas of honor, duty, and bravery. Indeed, Jack just wants to get away from home. The implication is that Rudyard is so overbearing as a father that Jack feels suffocated. He always has to deal with his father’s high expectations, which means he can never just relax and be himself. For this reason, he thinks that being himself would feel like being someone else entirely—an indication of just how stifled he feels by his father.
Themes
Elsie doesn’t think Jack should join the army, since he has such poor eyesight—it would just be dangerous. He dismisses this, trying to make her see that he doesn’t care if joining the army is dangerous. He just wants to get away from home. As long as he gets out of the house, he’ll be content. Then he won’t have to listen to his father constantly encouraging him. He just needs to get away from everyone in his life—a comment that offends Elsie. But Jack assures her he doesn’t want to leave her behind, it’s simply that he needs space to be himself. When she points out that he doesn’t have to join the army to do this, he agrees. And yet, the army would be a good excuse to get away.
Again, Jack indicates that his father’s overbearing style of parenting makes him feel as if he can’t be himself. In fact, he wants to get away from Rudyard so badly that he’s willing to put his life at risk, ignoring the fact that his nearsightedness will make him especially vulnerable on the battlefield. Jack’s eagerness to leave suggests that Rudyard’s pressure has pushed Jack toward the army for all the wrong reasons.
Themes
Jack and Elsie look at the painting of their dead sister, Josephine. She would have been 21 this year. Jack has no real memory of her, but Elsie still remembers her as the seven-year-old she once knew. She always thought that Josephine was Rudyard’s favorite—or, at the very least, his favorite daughter. Jack, of course, has always been the treasured only son. As for Elsie herself, she has never really held her father’s attention. Raising a glass of whiskey with Jack, she tells him not to leave her alone with their parents by joining the army, but he doesn’t respond.
Elsie doesn’t have to deal with the parental pressure that Rudyard puts on Jack. However, the absence of pressure basically means that Rudyard ignores Elsie. Instead, Rudyard focuses solely on turning Jack into a respectable young man, perhaps believing that Jack’s success in life will reflect upon him (and, conversely, that whatever Elsie does will hardly impact his own image). In a way, then, Rudyard prioritizes his own stature in society over giving his children love and affection.
Themes
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Hearing Rudyard approaching the drawing room, Elsie hides behind the chair and tells Jack to say she’s gone to bed. When he enters, Rudyard tells Jack he should go get some sleep. He also offers some encouraging words, telling Jack not to be upset about the meeting that afternoon with Sparks and Pottle. He should “buck up” and keep moving. Jack agrees, saying that he plans to enlist as a private soldier (a soldier of the lowest possible rank). This unsettles Rudyard, who tells him not to get too eager—they will find a better solution. He’ll certainly join the army, but he shouldn’t make any rash decisions about enlisting as a private soldier.
It's humorous that Rudyard ends up telling Jack to “buck up,” since this is exactly what Jack said when he imitated his father in private. Jack’s imitation suggests that Rudyard tells Jack to “buck up” quite frequently, urging him to show strength and to move on from hardship without dwelling on it—a perfect illustration of Rudyard’s values and his belief that young men like Jack should have a stiff upper lip. And yet, despite his belief that young men should be tough and brave, he doesn’t want Jack to join the army as a low-ranking soldier, implying that he believes in the importance of status as much as he believes in things like courage and duty.
Themes
