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

  1. #101
    Citizen of Gilead stone, rose, unfound door is on a distinguished road stone, rose, unfound door's Avatar

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    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.

  2. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by stone, rose, unfound door View Post
    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.
    For me there is no difference or more exactly it doesn't make any difference. If they planed it or not... I mean many times parents who plan to have a kid don't give a damn about their child later and parents who become parents accidentally spoil their kid. It depends on the personality of the parent.

    Roland would have understood.

  3. #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by stone, rose, unfound door View Post
    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.
    I think the other way, especially for father - he must have wanted to have an heir so hard that he totally disregarded the real boy, eclipsed by the Ideal Heir he had in his mind.

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  4. #104
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    I think Jake was not on his destined level of the tower, and therefore dim.
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    I think in their own way they loved him they just didnt prioritise him. It breaks my heart reading about lonely little bama when we first meet him.

    All the gunslingers faced adversity and dealt with it like true gunslingers. If Jake's parents were different and more loving maybe he wouldnt have gone to Dutch Hill.

    That said, I think Brownings Childe's point is really interesting. If he was dim that could explain why he was always so alone.

  6. #106
    Citizen of Gilead stone, rose, unfound door is on a distinguished road stone, rose, unfound door's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jean View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by stone, rose, unfound door View Post
    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.
    I think the other way, especially for father - he must have wanted to have an heir so hard that he totally disregarded the real boy, eclipsed by the Ideal Heir he had in his mind.
    That does make some sense but then the father should have been there to raise him. He could very well have disregarded what Jake liked and what he hated so Jake's father could have tried to turn him into the heir he wanted to have. Or maybe the reason is a lot simpler and they're just both very selfish.

  7. #107
    Gunslinger Apprentice RolandLover will become famous soon enough RolandLover will become famous soon enough

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    I actually had a hard time believing Jake would just leave his home, his life, his parents even though they didn't pay any attention to him enough, but i don't think they were bad or evil either to go be with Roland who let him fall to his death. What did Jake gain by going to Roland's world? A father because Roland promised to not let that happen again? Well couldn't the same be said about his parents? Give them another chance to be better parents? He died in on the way to Tower, gottten beaten up in Lud, he lost a friend, and other stuff. He had the touch, had the love of Roland, Eddie, and Susannah but that was it.

  8. #108
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    well, it looks to me like the love of Roland, Eddie and Susannah meant far more than anything he had, or expected to have, in his original life. I am not crazy about him hardly ever giving his parents another thought, either, but if we start calculating - ok, that's what he gained, but what exactly did he lose?

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  9. #109
    Gunslinger Apprentice RolandLover will become famous soon enough RolandLover will become famous soon enough

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jean View Post
    well, it looks to me like the love of Roland, Eddie and Susannah meant far more than anything he had, or expected to have, in his original life. I am not crazy about him hardly ever giving his parents another thought, either, but if we start calculating - ok, that's what he gained, but what exactly did he lose?
    I think the biggest thing Jake lost was growing up and living a life in his world. Yes he had the love of the ka tet but it ended in death. Roland, Eddie, and Susannah got a chance to live and fall in love, Jake didn't.

  10. #110
    Citizen of Gilead pixiedark76 will become famous soon enough pixiedark76 will become famous soon enough pixiedark76's Avatar

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    I don't feel sorry for Jake's parents at all. I really think that they hardly noticed he was gone. (Especially his father!) His father probably just went on drinking and doing drugs and working all the time!

    This may sound old-fashioned and bias, but I blame Jake's mother more than his father. ( His mother was "always in bed with sick friends") As far as I know, Jake's mother did not work. She certainly did not need to work make ends meet. So why did they need to hire a nanny for Jake! Jake's mother was very self absorbed and unloving towards Jake. Why did poor Jake have to show his school papers to the housekeeper? WHERE WAS HIS MOTHER!
    As a mother, I could not imagine treating my kids like this!

    Again, this may sound old-fashioned but it is usually the women (mother) to be loving towards her children. I think that it is disgusting when a mother behaves the way Jake's mother did! When a women can't be loving towards her own children there is something seriously wrong!

  11. #111
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    I think that Jake was so much better off with Roland than staying with his parents. If he would have stayed with his parents, he most likely have grown up to just like his father. He would have led a very unhappy life.

  12. #112
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    Quote Originally Posted by pixiedark76 View Post
    I think that Jake was so much better off with Roland than staying with his parents. If he would have stayed with his parents, he most likely have grown up to just like his father. He would have led a very unhappy life.
    Ditto
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  13. #113
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    Well Jake's parents aren't exactly Casey Anthony, but I still don't think they're great.

  14. #114
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    Both parents appeared to be immature assholes. The mother was simply ineffectual, apathetic and a complete failure as a mother. Sounds like she was neglectful of Jake, but pretty much checked out of life in general and on a self-destructive path. The father was immature in that he saw Jake as an extension of himself and cared about Jake as an object and how he reflected on his reputation, rather then what Jake really needed or wanted. They both sounded like people who were really too immature to be effective parents. At least the father tried to compensate by taking an interest, ragging on Jake when he thought he needed some discipline and paid for a housekeeper so that his physical needs could get met. Perhaps neither of them had good parental role models themselves. Either way, I don't feel sorry for them, but I don't feel they were monsters. Just negligent, self-absorbed a-holes that had no skills as parents. The back ground story of Jake does lend some veracity to the idea that negligence is actually more harmful than physical abuse.
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  15. #115
    Gunslinger Apprentice mtdman has a spectacular aura about mtdman has a spectacular aura about mtdman's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by stone, rose, unfound door View Post
    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.
    Yep, they treat him like an accident. I'm sure his father loves the idea of Jake once he had him, but I bet having kids isn't a priority for him. Now that he has a son he treats him like a project to develop, not as a person.

  16. #116
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    Quote Originally Posted by mtdman View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by stone, rose, unfound door View Post
    Did anyone ever think that maybe Jake wasn't meant to happen in their lives? Perhaps they saw him more like a random pregnancy than like their son to come. That may explain their behaviour towards their only son.
    Yep, they treat him like an accident. I'm sure his father loves the idea of Jake once he had him, but I bet having kids isn't a priority for him. Now that he has a son he treats him like a project to develop, not as a person.
    Pretty good assessment, IMHO!!!!
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  17. #117
    Gunslinger Apprentice Delah is on a distinguished road Delah's Avatar

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    I think a big reason we don't get Jake thinking about his parents too much is because, from a reader's perspective, homesickness is something we associate with Eddie. It's Eddie more than anyone else who misses his brother and NY, and part of Eddie's character arc is dealing with that homesickness. If Jake goes back to Mid-World but is homesick and missing his mother (like virtually any normal eleven year old would be) that would seem pretty repetitive. And a lot more difficult to resolve. Eddie getting out from Henry's shadow and accepting Mid-World is his home now is a good thing. But there's nothing wrong with an eleven year old boy missing his mother and there's no real way to resolve it.

    As for Jake's parents, I think its convenient, somewhat, for the reader (and the writer) that they're so neglectful, so uninterested in their child that he pretty much can't wait to get the hell away from them and return to Mid-World, and Roland. Imagine if Jake had come from a happy family. Even if the paradox had been created and Jake was forced to return to Mid-World to save his sanity, do you really think he would have forgiven Roland so quickly and taken his place in the ka-tet with so little friction if he knew he had a loving, caring family at home in NY, wondering and waiting about their beloved son? If you were eleven years old, would you really want to trade your home and a good family for a strange world with guys like Gasher and psychotic trains and a gunslinger who let you die? So its very convenient that his parents are so neglectful -- so uninterested in their son that Jake's parents are basically a non issue.

    I also think the Touch plays a big role here for Jake -- Jake is fully aware of how little his parents actually care about him, how they view him as an investment, and not a person. Conversely, he knows that Roland loves him (even though he also let him die) and later on, that Eddie and Susannah do to. Jake's parents made him who he was, through their neglect, and the people they chose to raise their son -- they're the reason he acts far older than his years, that he's quiet and thoughtful and controlled and so desperately lonely.

  18. #118
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    The truth is Eddie, Susannah, nor Jake have anything of value awaiting them in their own New Yorks. If they did it would cause problems.
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  19. #119
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    I woudn't say that they have nothing. Susannah, especially, has quite a lot of worthwhile things in her life in NY -- she has her friends, Papa Mose who is like a second father to her, money and a cause to fight for. Of course, she also has schizophrenia in NY.

    Eddie actually has the least amount of close, personal ties to NY after Henry dies, which is ironic b/c he's the most homesick one of them all. I just find it somewhat convenient that Jake's parents are so bad that they're so easily dismissed from the equation. Of course, I also found it a little too convenient how quickly Eddie and Odetta fell in love, but that's another thread.

  20. #120
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    They reminded me of all the rich parents I nannied for in college! But in the end parents like them were necessary for Jake to develop into the free thinking, independent, witty kid that he is!!

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