Previous
Chapter 3
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Orbiting Jupiter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parenthood
Adolescence and Responsibility
Prejudice
Trauma and Trust
Friendship and Love
Summary
Analysis
In Joseph’s story, he meets Madeleine when they are both 13. Mr. Brook, a plumber, works on Madeleine’s fancy house, and he makes Joseph carry his tools. Madeleine is there, but her lawyer parents are rarely home. Two days later, Joseph walks seven miles to Madeleine’s house and hangs out with her. After that, he comes every summer day except Saturdays and Sundays, when her parents are home. He never says—and she never asks—why his face is bruised: his father beats him for not helping with the plumbing anymore.
While Joseph’s father is working-class and Madeleine’s parents are implicitly very wealthy, none of them are good parents: Mr. Brook is abusive, beating Joseph for not working, while Madeleine’s parents neglect her, leaving her alone almost continuously during the work week. Madeleine’s bad parents illustrate that abusive or neglectful parenting is not a working-class phenomenon: rich people can parent badly too.
Active
Themes
In autumn, Madeleine goes to Andover for boarding school. Joseph emails her every day from a library computer. When she comes home for Thanksgiving, Joseph walks to see her the day after, but the nanny turns him away at the door, telling him to avoid trouble.
Madeleine attends boarding school, another detail that emphasizes both her parents’ wealth and their lack of interest in spending time with her.
Active
Themes
When Madeleine comes home for Christmas, Joseph walks to her house. She answers the door and ushers him in. They walk in the huge backyard, holding hands. They have a snowball fight, but Joseph misses her on purpose because he loves her. Past the huge backyard, they stroll along a frozen river. Madeleine “skates” in her boots until nightfall. When it’s dark, Joseph points out Jupiter and says it’s his “favorite planet.” Madeleine declares it her favorite now, too.
Active
Themes
Joseph walks to Madeleine’s house every day of her Christmas break except weekends. On her final day of break, it’s sleeting. When he arrives, she makes him remove his clothing and then wraps him in a red woolen blanket. She asks about his memories of his mother, and he describes how they used to eat snow with maple syrup. Later, Joseph and Madeleine take some maple syrup outside, find snow, and feed each other syrup-and-snow. Madeleine kisses Joseph for the first time. They go inside and get “under the red woolen blanket.”
Active
Themes
Get the entire Orbiting Jupiter LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The nanny finds Madeleine and Joseph. Soon after, Madeleine’s parents fire the nanny and take out an injunction against Joseph that forbids him from contacting Madeleine. Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) starts doing home visits with Joseph and Mr. Brook. Madeleine’s parents pull her from Andover and send her to a school in Pennsylvania. Three months later, Mrs. Stroud, who works for the DHSS, visits Mr. Brook during school hours. She tells him that Madeleine is pregnant and says that DHHS will take Joseph to a juvenile facility. When she tells Joseph’s father that Joseph might be charged with a crime, his father says it “wouldn’t be the first time.”
Active
Themes
When Joseph gets home, Mrs. Stroud tells him about Madeleine. Joseph is shocked that he’ll be a parent. He wants to be with Madeleine and the baby far away from Mr. Brook, and he wonders whether Madeleine’s parents will help them move away from Maine. When Mrs. Stroud drives him away, he asks her if this can happen. She replies that Joseph isn’t allowed to see Madeleine and that he, a 13-year-old boy, should stop thinking about her. When Joseph protests that he’s going to be a parent, Mrs. Stroud repeats that he’s 13.
Joseph runs away from the group home and goes to Madeleine’s. Madeleine’s mother calls the police. Joseph tells the police that he wanted to explain to Madeleine’s parents that he loves her and is determined to care for their baby. A policeman asks his age. When Joseph tells him, the policeman says Joseph’s “a baby.” Then he returns Joseph to the group home.
Active
Themes
Joseph runs away and tries hitchhiking to Pennsylvania. The police find him and take him to Lake Adams Juvenile, a facility with doors that lock from the outside. A couple months later, Mrs. Stroud visits and asks that Joseph sign away his parental rights—revealing to him that Madeleine has had the baby. Examining the papers, he learns that his baby is named Jupiter. He cries. Mrs. Stroud gives him a photo of Jupiter even though she’s not supposed to.
Active
Themes
Mrs. Stroud urges Joseph to sign away his parental rights so that a loving family can adopt Jupiter. Joseph insists that he wants to raise Jupiter. Mrs. Stroud points out that he just turned 14. When Joseph insists that he and Madeleine are the best parents for Jupiter, Mrs. Stroud explains that if he doesn’t sign the paper, Madeleine’s parents will press charges. Joseph frantically interrupts Mrs. Stroud, but he has already realized that Madeleine has died. When Mrs. Stroud tells him that Madeleine would want him to sign the papers, he signs and flees.
Active
Themes
Joseph, overwhelmed, runs into the boys’ bathroom and throws water on his face. Another boy walks in, sees Joseph’s distress, and offers him pills. Joseph swallows them and staggers into a stall. A teacher finds him. When Joseph is arrested, he is told that he tried to kill the teacher. After that, he is sent to Stone Mountain. He tries to run away, but the razor wire fence cuts him open from armpit to knee when he climbs over it.
Active
Themes
When Mrs. Stroud visits Joseph at Stone Mountain, she asks where he was trying to escape to. Joseph asks her what she thinks, insinuating that he was trying to see Jupiter. When she insists that a 14-year-old boy can’t be a father, Joseph replies that he is Jupiter’s father no matter what. Joseph stops talking to Mrs. Stroud or anyone else, even after boys at Stone Mountain beat him up three times, the third time holding him down and doing something to him. After this incident, Mrs. Stroud says that she’ll try to place him with some excellent foster parents on a farm.
Active
Themes
In the present, on the Hurds’ farm, Mr. Hurd, Mrs. Hurd, and Jack listen to Joseph’s story carefully. When Joseph finishes, he flees to the barn, and Jack can hear Rosie the cow mooing lovingly. Jack asks why Joseph can’t see Jupiter, and his parents tell him that 14-year-old Joseph can’t be a father and that meeting Joseph might disturb Jupiter. When Jack asks them whether Jupiter might want Joseph to see her, Mr. Hurd puts a comforting hand on his back.
Active
Themes
That night, in Jack and Joseph’s bedroom, Joseph stands staring out the window. When Jack asks what Joseph is doing, Joseph says he can’t see the planet Jupiter because of the moon’s brightness and doesn’t know where “she” is. Joseph announces that he’ll “find her” so he won’t be alone anymore. Jack tells Joseph that he's not alone. When Joseph says he is, Jack insists he’s not. The boys go to bed. Jack sleeps but keeps waking up. One time he wakes up and sees Joseph standing at the window. The next morning on the school bus, one of Jack’s friends warns him repeatedly not to hang out with Joseph, but he won’t say why.
