The word love, although sometimes used in vain, is a vital component to an individual’s upbringing. In Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy and his mother are deserted by Jimmy’s biological father, and his mother is left to raise him on her own. As a result of this desertion, the implication is that her faith in love left with Jimmy’s father; this is illustrated when Jimmy’s mother invites “superman,” a stranger, into their home and her bedroom. Her frustration of loosing love is taken out on Jimmy through overbearing parenting and intolerance for any of Jimmy’s boyhood curiosity. To Jimmy’s detriment, this lack of love in his childhood not only causes him to be unable to love those he meets later in life, but it causes him to be unable to love himself. Throughout the book he searches for love and acceptance.
Later, while eating with his newly-found father, Jimmy imagines sleeping with a female in her apartment. She expresses to him her fear of having a one-night stand because of the diseases that can be contracted when a person is unfamiliar with another person and their sexual history. Jimmy then gets up, calls her a tease, and leaves. His fear of opening up or emotionally expressing himself is shown in his abrupt departure from the room.
The scene then cuts back into the diner. Jimmy sharing his first meal with his father ignites this daydream that illustrates the harm his dad’s departure has caused him. Jimmy’s mom set an example of men coming in, sleeping with her, and leaving, and this practice of being unable to commit and ‘make love’ follows Jimmy in life. His resistance to want more with this female or at least try to have a relationship with her shows that Jimmy has no concept of what it means to have deep feelings for someone and really has no grasp on the meaning of the word love.
Another incident demonstrating Jimmy’s inability to love others occurs when Jimmy and his sister Amy are told that their father has passed. Before this happens, the reader can clearly see that Amy is a together, emotion-having individual and the author is trying to tell us that it is because she grew up with a loving family. She is filled with anxiety when she first hears of her dad’s accident, she is sympathetic with Jimmy when she finds him in the waiting room, although he sits emotionless, and finally she reacts to the news of her fathers passing with anger and sadness, to where she pushes Jimmy; these emotions are extracted from the undeniable love she has for her dad. Jimmy’s reaction is to leave abruptly, again, unable to express any feeling he had grown for his father. His sadness and suicidal thoughts is more of a reaction to the emotions that Amy had experienced in the waiting room, than as a result of his own broken-heartedness. He convinced himself that he was only vying for his father’s acceptance, when really he needed and wanted to have his dad’s love and allow himself to reciprocate.
The last frame or set of frames when Jimmy looks down in sadness and shamefulness, and then up to the rooftop of the building, contemplating suicide, the reader is finally shown that he has given up on external outlets and cannot find self-worth within. Jimmy finally realizes that his life is meaningless and that he cannot live in the imaginary scenarios he creates in his mind.
Jimmy could never possess the strength to persevere over obstacles and could never comprehend and begin to express the love for himself or others that he was not shown.
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3 comments:
Siatta,
I really liked the topic you focused on in your paper and you used great examples from the book to back up your views.
I’m not sure if it’s just because we have different writing styles but I think your introduction needs to be a little more general. Instead of introducing your reader into the topic of your paper, you start giving particular examples from the text, which I feel should be included later (in the body paragraphs) to back up your thesis.
Along with this, I think it would flow better if you grouped Jimmy’s mother’s one night stand experience with his own. Also, I think you should explain more as to why Jimmy’s mother inviting superman into her home is an illustration of her loss of faith in love. Is it because she has given up on actual or long term relationships?
As for the rest of your paper, I think your structure and ordering was well thought out. However, I would suggest trying to use better transitions from one paragraph to the next.
I liked your ending and I feel like it was a good topic to finish off your paper. I think you could make this paragraph stronger by stressing a little more on the idea of Jimmy not being exposed to love and thus not being able to express it. You threw it in at the end of the paragraph but I think the paragraph needs to be centered around the topic of your paper, love.
Lastly, similar to the introduction paragraph, I think you need to add a conclusion paragraph to the end of your paper to “wrap things up.” Use this paragraph to restate your thesis statement (in different words) and the different topics mentioned in your paper. Make sure not to introduce any new information or examples; simply recap your paper.
Siatta Merchant
Love: Jimmy Corrigan
The word love, although sometimes used in vain, is a vital component to an individual’s upbringing. In Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Jimmy and his mother are deserted by Jimmy’s biological father, and his mother is left to raise him on her own. As a result of this desertion, the implication is that her faith in love left with Jimmy’s father; this is illustrated when Jimmy’s mother invites “superman,” a stranger, into their home and her bedroom. She has lost her desire to engage in long term relationships, and her only existing memory of that pain is Jimmy, to whom she uses as a crutch for all problems in her life. Her frustration of loosing love is taken out on Jimmy through overbearing parenting and intolerance for any of Jimmy’s boyhood curiosity. To Jimmy’s detriment, this lack of love in his childhood not only causes him to be unable to love those he meets later in life, but it causes him to be unable to love himself. Throughout the book he searches for love and acceptance.
Later, while eating with his newly-found father, Jimmy imagines sleeping with a female in her apartment. She expresses to him her fear of having a one-night stand because of the diseases that can be contracted when a person is unfamiliar with another person and their sexual history. Jimmy then gets up, calls her a tease, and leaves. His fear of opening up or emotionally expressing himself is shown in his abrupt departure from the room.
The scene then cuts back into the diner. Jimmy sharing his first meal with his father ignites this daydream that illustrates the harm his dad’s departure has caused him. Jimmy’s mom set an example of men coming in, sleeping with her, and leaving, and this practice of being unable to commit and ‘make love’ follows Jimmy in life. His resistance to at least try to have a relationship with this female show that Jimmy has no concept of what it means to have deep feelings for someone and really has no grasp on the meaning of the word love.
Another incident demonstrating Jimmy’s inability to love others occurs when Jimmy and his sister Amy are told that their father has passed. Before this happens, the reader can clearly see that Amy is a together, emotion-having individual and the author is trying to tell us that it is because she grew up with a loving family. She is filled with anxiety when she first hears of her dad’s accident, she is sympathetic with Jimmy when she finds him in the waiting room, although he sits emotionless, and finally she reacts to the news of her fathers passing with anger and sadness, to where she pushes Jimmy; these emotions are extracted from the undeniable love she has for her dad. Jimmy’s reaction is to leave abruptly, again, unable to express any feeling he had grown for his father. His sadness and suicidal thoughts is more of a reaction to the emotions that Amy had experienced in the waiting room, than as a result of his own broken-heartedness. He convinced himself that he was only vying for his father’s acceptance, when really he needed and wanted to have his dad’s love and allow himself to reciprocate.
The last frame or set of frames when Jimmy looks down in sadness and shamefulness, and then up to the rooftop of the building, contemplating suicide, the reader is finally shown that he has given up on external outlets and cannot find self-worth within. Jimmy finally realizes that his life is meaningless and that he cannot live in the imaginary scenarios he creates in his mind.
Jimmy’s inability to convey emotions to the female in her apartment, to his biological father after he had taken his last breath, and even to himself when he could find no other resources to reciprocate his love, are reflections of the consequences a child faces when they are not exposed to love in their upbringing. Jimmy could never possess the strength to persevere over obstacles and could never comprehend and begin to express the love for himself or others that he was never shown.
Dana - this is generally good advice, but you're thinking back to high school a little too much with your concept of introduction and conclusion; what I look for, first and foremost, is that the introduction and the conclusion do work other than just being filler.
Siatta - Did Jimmy's mother and father love one another? You imply that love was lost; one might argue, rather, that it was never there in the first place. In any case, there is relevant material in the text which you aren't discussing.
One difficulty here is that you misread the material about the one night stand; this is about Jimmy's father and mother, not Jimmy -- although I'm now uncertain whether Jimmy is imagining the scene or his father is remembering it. Not that this devastates your argument, but it certainly changes it...
You discuss some aspects of the important scene with Amy & Jimmy, but ignore his attempt to touch her hand. Doesn't that contradict what you're saying, at least to some extent?
This raises a bigger, more conceptual issue - are you prepared to defend in more detail the premise that Jimmy had little experience with love? Very likely you're right, but your analysis of his relationship with his mother seems to be a little cursory...
Overall: This material is certainly usable, but you are misreading parts, and ignoring important parts of the text...
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