Previous
Chapter 7
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
For a few days after Joseph gets home, Mrs. Stroud and Mr. Canton sternly lecture him. Joseph decides to start walking to school again, with Mr. Hurd’s permission, rather than hear what Mr. Haskell is likely to say about him. Yet the librarian does write to Joseph every week about Jupiter, and Jack no longer hears Joseph crying out in his sleep. Joseph doesn’t have to do Office Duty at school anymore: Mr. D’Ulney has nominated him for the spring Math Olympiad and is using fifth period to teach him trigonometry. Coach Swieteck has put Joseph in charge of the kids who want to do track and field, and Mrs. Halloway, who saw him reading Walden, talks to him about Thoreau.
With a connection to his baby daughter and the support of his foster parents and non-prejudiced teachers, Joseph is clearly doing better: he no longer expresses trauma symptoms by crying out in his sleep, and he’s succeeding in school and sports. Joseph’s healing and success emphasize that Mr. Canton and other prejudiced adults are wrong to write traumatized foster children off: with the help of caring adults, they can heal and thrive.
Active
Themes
In February, Mr. Hurd takes Joseph and Jack out to tap trees for maple syrup. When Joseph mentions that Jupiter would love doing this one day, Mr. Hurd pauses and then agrees. Later that night, Mr. Hurd and Mrs. Hurd retreat to their room immediately after dinner and make some phone calls. Meanwhile, Joseph asks whether he’s told Jack about the first time he and Madeleine danced. When Jack says yes, Joseph goes out, smiling, to milk Rosie the cow. Jack has finally lost count of the number of times he’s seen Joseph smile.
The novel does not explicitly state here that Mr. and Mrs. Hurd are trying to adopt Jupiter, but the sequence of events—Mr. Hurd agrees that Jupiter would love to tap trees with them one day, and then he and Mrs. Hurd start making phone calls—suggest that they want to adopt Jupiter, implicitly so that Joseph can love and have a relationship with his daughter without taking on full responsibility for raising her, which he is too young and immature to do. The brief reference to Rosie the cow—who has always expressed unconditional positive feelings toward Joseph—underscores that Rosie has been right about Joseph all along: he is a good, decent boy capable of flourishing in the right environment.
Active
Themes
After many happy days, Joseph and Jack come home from school one afternoon and see an unfamiliar white pickup by the barn. Joseph orders Jack to go into the barn. Jack goes in there and waits—until he hears Mr. Hurd yell, “No!” Jack runs into the kitchen and sees Mrs. Hurd standing with Joseph. Mr. Hurd is standing in front of them, and Mr. Brook is by the door, holding a gun. Mr. Brook grabs Jack and orders Mr. Hurd to stop. Mr. Hurd does so. Mr. Brook—who smells like alcohol—tells Mr. Hurd that he only wants his son back, just like Mr. Hurd does. Mr. Hurd, pretending to be calm, says that they both “want what’s best” for their sons, but that Mr. Brook is going about it the wrong way.
Active
Themes
Joseph yells, “You sold her!” Mr. Brook retorts that Joseph was never going to have her (Jupiter) and that “we needed a new truck.” Joseph tries to rush Mr. Brook, but Mr. Hurd grabs him. Joseph sobs. When he finally stops, Mr. Brook orders him into the truck. Mr. Hurd moves Joseph behind him and tells Mr. Brook to let Jack go, get in his truck, and end the situation. Mr. Brook asks whether Mr. Hurd thinks he has control of the situation and puts his gun against Jack’s side. When Mr. Hurd points out that the police will pick Mr. Brook up if he leaves with Joseph, Mr. Brook suggests he’ll take Jack as a hostage.
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.
Joseph says he’ll come with Mr. Brook but tells him to let Jack go. He walks out from behind Mr. Hurd. Mr. Brook takes the gun from Jack’s side. Joseph tugs Jack away from Mr. Brook and leads Mr. Brook out the door. As soon as the door closes, Mr. Hurd runs for the phone while Mrs. Hurd runs toward Jack. Jack looks out the window, sees Joseph glance back from the pickup truck, and meets Joseph’s eyes. Then the pickup drives away.
Active
Themes
After the fact, Jack and the Hurds reconstruct what happened: Mr. Brook was driving too fast. Mr. Canton, driving out of school, saw the white pickup coming at him down the road and braked. Mr. Brook T-boned him and knocked his car into some trees. Then Mr. Brook drove past the “Bridge Out” sign onto the derelict Alliance Bridge, which broke under the car. Two days later, the pickup is found in the river. Mr. Hurd goes, though he won’t let Jack accompany him. Mr. Hurd is the one to free Joseph’s body from the truck.
Active
Themes
At Joseph’s funeral three days later, in the side chapel of First Congregational, Jack counts Mr. D’Ulney, Mr. Canton, Mrs. Halloway, a weeping Coach Swieteck, Mr. Hurd, Mrs. Hurd, the librarian, the Baptist pastor from near Lewiston, Mrs. Stroud, and three of his friends from the bus as the only attendees. Reverend Ballou asks whether anyone would like to speak. Mr. Hurd looks at Jack, but Jack is too afraid he’ll cry. Reverend Ballou talks about angels and then whispers, “Where the hell were they?” The attendees pray.
Active
Themes
The funeral attendees go to the local cemetery where the Hurd ancestors are buried and place Joseph’s coffin among them. Reverend Ballou says that Joseph risked his own safety to protect others and says, “Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Jack starts sobbing because Joseph was more than his friend: they had each other’s backs, and “that’s what greater love is.”
