Big Jeff is one of the narrator’s classmates and Purcell’s cousin. Both he and Purcell are named Jeff Purcell, and so he’s nicknamed “Big Jeff” because he’s taller. Big Jeff is a vegetarian and a scientist. Once, he accidentally shoots a rocket into the school’s field house and sets it on fire. Later, Big Jeff submits a story called “The Day the Cows Came Home,” which is meant to be a critique of eating meat, to the competition to meet Ayn Rand. Rand selects the story, but it becomes clear that she interprets it as a criticism of collectivism and the welfare state instead of Big Jeff’s intended vegetarian allegory.
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Big Jeff Character Timeline in Old School
The timeline below shows where the character Big Jeff appears in Old School. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Class Picture
...cousin who attends the school that is also named Jeff Purcell, whom they call “ Big Jeff ” despite the fact that he’s not much bigger than Little Jeff. Little Jeff is...
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Chapter 2: On Fire
...house. No flames are visible, but a few shingles are burned. The narrator learns that Big Jeff started the fire. Big Jeff is a very friendly person, a vegetarian, and a scientist....
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Chapter 4: Übermensch
...narrator is discharged from the infirmary, he goes to congratulate Purcell, but Purcell says that Big Jeff actually won. The narrator is stunned—he didn’t know Big Jeff wrote. Purcell gives the narrator...
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Big Jeff ’s story is called “The Day the Cows Came Home.” In the story, a UFO...
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In the newspaper’s interview with Ayn Rand, she praises Big Jeff as a great writer in the making, noting his dare to challenge “collectivist orthodoxy.” She...
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Big Jeff then asks what Rand’s position on meat is, saying that if her readers knew she...
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Chapter 6: The Forked Tongue
On Friday, Big Jeff announces that if Purcell got kicked out, he would leave too. This doesn’t make much...
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Purcell attends chapel on Saturday afternoon. The narrator surmises that he didn’t want Big Jeff to leave the school as well, which would embarrass him. At the Troubadour editorial meeting,...
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