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Thread: What do you think about Jake's parents?

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    damned and saved Letti will become famous soon enough Letti will become famous soon enough Letti's Avatar

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    Default What do you think about Jake's parents?

    Somehow I liked them a lot. I think they have never understood Jake but I think they loved him a lot but they weren't able to show him their feelings.
    I wish we knew more about Jake's mother.


    Spoiler:
    After Jake's vanishing I am sure their life became hell and everything was ruined around them.

    Roland would have understood.

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    Roont Daghain is on a distinguished road Daghain's Avatar

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    I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
    Spoiler:
    get the hell out of there and go back to Roland, who was a better parent to him than the two who donated their DNA.



    "People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard


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    The Tenant Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean has a brilliant future Jean's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daghain View Post
    I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
    Spoiler:
    get the hell out of there and go back to Roland, who was a better parent to him than the two who donated their DNA.
    ditto

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    damned and saved Letti will become famous soon enough Letti will become famous soon enough Letti's Avatar

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    I know very well that they weren't good parents.. but still I felt sorry for them.

    Roland would have understood.

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    Roont Daghain is on a distinguished road Daghain's Avatar

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    You have a far bigger heart than I. Letti. That's why I like you.



    "People, especially children, aren't measured by their IQ. What's important about them is whether they're good or bad, and these children are bad." ~ Alan Bernard


    "You needn't die happy when your day comes, but you must die satisfied, for you have lived your life from beginning to end and ka is always served." ~ Roland Deschain

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    damned and saved Letti will become famous soon enough Letti will become famous soon enough Letti's Avatar

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    Oh no... I don't think so but thank you for your kind words.
    I just see my parents in them I think... I mean I was quite a strange kid myself and they didn't really understand me. They tried their best and they gave me so much but they never knew me. I love and I respect them a lot and now I know I should have told them a lot of things I shouldn't have been so closed I didn't dare to talk about... and damn I was a kid. They should have found the way to me.
    But I think I have the best parents all over the world but they are humans as well with lots of mistakes.
    Maybe that's why I felt sorry for Jake's parents. I don't know.

    Roland would have understood.

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    Citizen of Gilead She-Oy is on a distinguished road She-Oy's Avatar

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    I loathed Jake's parents. I felt like King did too. Jake was the product of two selfish, self-absorbed people who didn't give a good god-damn about their child. Luckily they were rich, so they could hire someone to care.

    As for him being better off with Roland, I suppose, maybe, but he was still an afterthought...the tower was more important to Roland than Jake.

    I almost think that's why Jake had Oy. He had to have someone who gave him unconditional love, and that's the void Oy help fill. He knew Jake needed that.
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    DT.Org's Official Sweetie Wuducynn will become famous soon enough Wuducynn's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jean View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Daghain View Post
    I thought his dad was a total jerk, and his mother was too self-absorbed. I was really rooting for Jake to
    Spoiler:
    get the hell out of there and go back to Roland, who was a better parent to him than the two who donated their DNA.
    ditto
    Double ditto and three quarters..
    "It's his eyes, Roland thought. They were wide and terrible, the eyes of a dragon in human form" - Roland seeing the Crimson King for the first time.

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    Yep, they were total self obsessed arses and I think after Jake's disappearance they would easily let their sorrow become self pity and thus give themselves (in their own minds) more justification for drinking, snorting and sleeping around.

    For your pov Letti, I'd agree that they probably had unhappy lives themselves to feel unable and unaware of how to support and nuture their own child, and thats always sad.

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    Gunslinger Apprentice Chassit is on a distinguished road Chassit's Avatar

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    Agreed Darkthoughts, I would think they would just delve deeper into depression and use more drugs as a result.

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    Sure thing Chassit - King really has a knack of observing that side of life in his books.

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    One who came back Malficeus is on a distinguished road Malficeus's Avatar

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    There is a problem when your house keeper knows whats going on in your kids life more then you do. His da had way to many problems and was a workaholic but with his job i wanted to know who keeps a Kruger in a desk? and as for his mum shes pliable she bends to the stronger so shes praticlly useless for anything

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    Citizen of Gilead ATG is on a distinguished road

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    Reminded me of mine. Except we were broke.
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    Banned obscurejude is on a distinguished road

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    I hope Black 13 sent Jake's parents into eternal todash. Hated them.

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    Numenorean ManOfWesternesse is on a distinguished road ManOfWesternesse's Avatar

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    The 2 characters were well used by King in the Book.
    Typical of a certain kind of parent in real life nowadays. They had too much happening in their own lives to be seriously interested in Jake's day-to-day life.
    But yes, there were certainly indications that they loved him, in their own way, and were concerned about him. They were just too inneffective to do anything meaningful about it.

    My overall feelings for them & their loss of jake?
    Indifference, I guess...
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    Roont jayson is on a distinguished road

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    Count me into the "despised them" camp. I've said before that Jake Chambers is possibly my fav fictional character, certainly my fav character in DT. A good deal of that is because I see a lot of my own childhood in Jake's, with one exception, I had great parents. As far as the strangeness and the loneliness and the lack of real friends, that seemed very familiar to me, but the parents, that's where I really felt terribly for Jake. I don't doubt that Jake's parents did love him on some level, but they'd have been wise to make sure he knew that they did. I didn't talk to my parents a lot when I was his age but I always knew if I absolutely had to, I could and I didn't have to fear them as Jake did his father.

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    Sadly this is what some people whould actually do.....pathetic isnt it?







    Quote Originally Posted by Darkthoughts View Post
    Yep, they were total self obsessed arses and I think after Jake's disappearance they would easily let their sorrow become self pity and thus give themselves (in their own minds) more justification for drinking, snorting and sleeping around.

    For your pov Letti, I'd agree that they probably had unhappy lives themselves to feel unable and unaware of how to support and nuture their own child, and thats always sad.

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    Its funny, because I can usually identify with parents of all shapes and sizes.

    I remember reading these two and thinking there was no way I could identify with any part of either of them.
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    they always seemed to me a little exaggerated as characters. As if Mr.King decided to make his own task easier, not making Jake face the horrible choice between the world behind the door and normal parents.
    Last edited by Jean; 09-08-2009 at 11:37 AM.

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    damned and saved Letti will become famous soon enough Letti will become famous soon enough Letti's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jean View Post
    they always seemed to me a little exaggerated as characters. As if Mr.King decided to make his own task easier, not making Jake face the horrible choice between the world behind the door and normal parents.
    I must disagree, Jean.
    First of all I don't think that King is that type of author who chooses the easier way... no, I don't think so. He writes what he must write. Even if it made Jake's choice easier (I am not sure about it at all) that's how it had to be.
    - Anyway if you look at the psychological part of it usually the kids who are treated badly by their parents (even if they are hit or even worse) love and are hooked on their parents much more than the well-treated ones. It's a fact. -
    Secondly, what do you mean by normal parents?? Most of the parents (if not all) make lots of mistakes and many of them are big. I do love my parents and I respect them but when I look back... they could make horrible things.
    So for me Jake's parents are absolutely normal. I might live in a darker world but they are. They didn't hit him to coma they gave him food they loved him but they couldn't show it... so in my eyes they weren't mosters at all and they were absolutely normal. Not good. Not at all. But normal.
    Last edited by Jean; 09-08-2009 at 11:37 AM.

    Roland would have understood.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Letti View Post
    Anyway if you look at the psychological part of it usually the kids who are treated badly by their parents (even if they are hit or even worse) love and are hooked on their parents much more than the well-treated ones. It's a fact. -
    I wouldn't say deprived/abused kids love their parents more than well treated kids, but I'm sure they crave normal love more, as a result of not receiving it.

    So for me Jake's parents are absolutely normal. I might live in a darker world but they are. They didn't hit him to coma they gave him food they loved him but they couldn't show it... so in my eyes they weren't mosters at all and they were absolutely normal. Not good. Not at all. But normal.
    I see what you're saying, sure they didn't physically abuse him, but they neglected him emotionally. I don't think they were monsters either, but they weren't normal parents in my eyes, they were too self involved - I consider normal to be a parent who was able to put his/her child's needs before that of their own the majority of the time.
    I don't think normal is perhaps the best word, its very PC but my Dad and his other social worker colleagues use the term "good enough parent" instead of normal and abnormal - I guess it casts less aspersions, but I think the PC term is, for once, better in this context

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    Dark, that's a good distinction with the PC thing.
    I certainly would not call Jakes parents 'normal' either - it just would'nt ring true for me - but 'good enough' ? Maybe...

    I see where Letti's coming from though - these 2 did not wrong Jake in any way by intent, but purely by neglect (not any physical neglect no, but emotional yes). They were not 'bad' parents, certainly not 'great' ones, and for me they probably fall a bit short of 'good' too.
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    Roont jayson is on a distinguished road

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    Lisa & Brian, I am with you both. "Normal" can be a bit subjective. Neglectful and self-absorbed would be accurate descriptors. Those are not qualities that make for good parents, but I agree that they never intentionally hurt Jake. I think they were a bit too self-absorbed to realize they were doing anything "wrong."

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    Yes, for me they were people that probably had a child because it was part of what they thought you should do, rather than considering if they actually wanted to, or if they had the time and emotional stability it takes to be a parent.

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    Roont jayson is on a distinguished road

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    I agree completely. Jake was more of an accessory than a human being to them.

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