Jake Drake, Know-It-All

“And one thing I know for sure is this: There’s nothing worse than a know-it-all.”

Jake’s extreme claim—that there is “nothing worse” than people who act like they know everything and have to prove that they are smarter than everyone else—conveys how much he dislikes Marsha and Kevin’s behavior. Since he will soon begin acting like a know-it-all himself, this helps lay groundwork for the story’s central conflict. It also helps to establish the themes of Learning as Its Own Reward and The Value of Personal Integrity by making it clear that Jake is contradicting his own values by acting like Kevin and Marsha as he pursues the reward of the new computer instead of focusing on learning something about science.

“Kevin looked like his arm was going to pull his whole body right out of his chair and drag it up to the ceiling, like his arm had its own brain or something.”

Jake’s casual and humorous narrative voice comes through clearly as he describes the image of Kevin eagerly trying to get a teacher to call on him. Casual phrasing such as “like his arm had its own brain or something” lends verisimilitude to Jake as a child narrator. The absurd personification of Kevin’s arm having its own mind and deciding to haul Kevin’s body all the way up to the ceiling is comical and helps convey Jake’s disdain for Kevin’s behavior by making it seem ridiculous.

“The Bluntium Twelve was the computer I had been begging my mom and dad to get. It was the fastest computer with the coolest games and the best connections. It was the computer of my dreams.”

Jake’s enthusiastic description of the amazing features of the computer that Lenny Cordo is offering as a prize makes it clear how important it is to him to win the science fair so that he can get his hands on the Bluntium Twelve. His diction—he has been “begging” for the computer, and it is the computer of his “dreams”—also conveys his desperation. This provides important context for the decisions he makes in the next few chapters of the story.

“They were already planning how to win that Bluntium Twelve computer—my computer!”

At this moment, Jake decides that Kevin and Marsha are his main competition in his quest to win the computer—a computer he is already thinking of as his property, as his diction makes clear when he calls it “[his] computer.” This establishes Marsha and Kevin as the text’s antagonists and shows that, at this point, Jake sees the story’s conflict as being about whether he can defeat Kevin and Marsha. Later, he will understand the conflict differently.

“Usually, I would have looked at Marsha and Kevin and said to myself, know-It-alls. But not that day. I grabbed my red pen, I unfolded my science fair papers, and I started reading.”

Jake realizes that, ordinarily, he would disapprove of Kevin and Marsha’s behavior. Instead of dismissing it as distasteful know-it-all behavior this time, however, he mimics what they are doing. Because this happens within minutes of the class receiving the science fair booklets, this scene shows how quickly Jake’s attitude changes once he is tempted by the new computer.

“Because I wanted to be the first. And the best. I wanted to win. […] I had to be know-it-all number one.”

Using language that mimics his earlier criticisms of everything he dislikes about know-it-alls, Jake openly admits that his intention is to become one of them. This makes it clear that the changes in Jake’s beliefs and behaviors are not subconscious—he deliberately sets aside the value of personal integrity in order to pursue his dream computer.

“Willie looked at me like I was nuts. ‘Then we’ll have this cool computer, that’s what. We can keep it at your house some of the time, and at my house some of the time. It’ll be great!’”

Willie’s enthusiastic optimism about what it would be like to win the science fair with Jake helps to characterize him as cheerful and generous—he cannot imagine being too greedy to share the computer with his best friend. This emphasizes his role as a foil for Jake, who is exactly this greedy. This difference between them is reinforced by the detail that Willie looks at Jake like he is “nuts.” Willie literally cannot understand Jake’s perspective in this moment.

“Which was not very nice. But when you have to get the right answer, and you have to get it first, and you have to win, then you don’t have as much time to be nice anymore.”

Jake is keenly aware that he is violating his own ethical code in his treatment of Willie. He knows The Importance of Loyalty to Friends, and it is important to him to be seen as a nice person—in fact, the impact of know-it-all behavior on others is one of his biggest criticisms of this behavior. Despite knowing all of this, however, Jake makes a conscious choice to keep pursuing his dream computer by becoming the number-one know-it-all.

“He looked at each page for about two seconds.”

Jake’s father demonstrates his own know-it-all behavior when he assumes that he knows everything about the science fair without actually reading the booklet. This points out that know-it-alls are a more general problem in Jake’s life than just his encounters with Kevin and Marsha at school. The impact that Jim’s behavior has on Jake is another illustration of The Importance of Staying Humble.

“Dad whistled.”

The isolation of this short sentence by itself on a line draws attention to the significance of the moment. Jake’s father’s attitude shifts when he learns about the Bluntium Twelve computer being given as a prize, showing how tempting this computer is even to adults.

“What is the effect of sawdust on the taste of a vanilla milkshake?”

Although Jake is highly motivated to succeed with his science fair project, he initially spends time coming up with silly questions to amuse himself. This illustrates Jake’s characteristic sense of humor—but it also shows that he is struggling to get started with his project because his motivation is in the wrong place. As long as he is focused on the prize of the computer, he has a hard time moving forward—it is not until later, when he remembers electromagnets, that he can actually get excited about his project and formulate a genuine research question.

“It’s my junk drawer. That’s what mom calls it because it all looks like junk to her.”

Jake implies that, although he calls it a “junk drawer” because his mother does, unlike her, he does not see the items inside as “junk.” The vast collection of erasers, paper clips, action figures, basketball cards, broken yo-yos, bottle caps, and so on has meaning to Jake. This helps to characterize Jake as someone who sees value where others do not.

“I moved the nail next to a paper clip and zzip! It jumped right onto the nail!”

The moment of Jake’s success with his first electromagnet is exciting for him. This is conveyed through the multiple exclamation points and the italicization and nonstandard spelling of “zzip,” a word that helps convey the swift action of the paper clip’s movement.

“And the great part was, I really wanted to know the answer!”

Jake’s tone is relieved, excited, and almost disbelieving as he reacts to finally discovering a research question. Finding a question he “really” wants to know the answer to is surprising and “great.” Although he was prepared to move forward with a project that bored him just so that he could win and get the computer, at this moment, he experiences learning as its own reward.

“Nobody can know everything. There’s too much.”

Even though Jake, by his own description, is engaged in some know-it-all behaviors, he still understands something that people like Kevin and Marsha seem not to understand. A smart person realizes that no one person can be an expert in everything and that it is silly to pretend otherwise. This helps to convey the importance of staying humble because other people will be aware that know-it-alls are faking at least some of their supposed knowledge.

“They didn’t get my joke. […] I had discovered that Kevin reminded me of a cross between a shark and a rat, and Marsha was like a snake and a weasel.”

Jake reveals that the information on various animals that he looked up in order to confuse Marsha and Kevin was deliberately chosen in order to covertly insult them. Here, he compares Kevin’s and Marsha’s behaviors of questioning him and spying on him to the behaviors of several animals known for hostile and sneaky behaviors. Ironically, he does not see how his own behavior has similarly become hostile and sneaky.

“One day I went sledding with Willie. We had a great time, and we didn’t talk about our projects, not even once.”

In Chapter 1, Jake makes it clear how much time he usually spends with Willie outside of school—they usually play together every day. This contrasts sharply with his description of his winter break in Chapter 8. Notably, on the one day he does make time for Willie, he makes a point of mentioning that they have a “great time” and connects this to the idea of forgetting about his science fair project for a while. This both reinforces the theme of the importance of loyalty to friends and demonstrates that, for Jake, the science fair project has become a burden.

“I had turned myself into a know-it-all. I had gotten as mean as Kevin and as sneaky as Marsha.”

This is Jake’s moment of anagnorisis, or self-realization. He sees himself clearly for the first time and recognizes his own role in creating unhappiness in both himself and others. This is a turning point for him, and his behavior will improve dramatically in subsequent chapters.

“I guess my shoes were too quiet, because when I said ‘Mrs. Snavin?’ she jumped about a foot and let out this little squeal.”

This moment illustrates the way that Jake injects humorous details throughout the telling of his story. The hyperbole of “jumped about a foot” and the image of a normally in-control authority figure being startled and squealing create comic relief during a tense time in the story as Jake tries to undo the damage he has done in his friendship with Willie.

“Willie smiled this smile that almost covered his whole face.”

The descriptive detail of Willie’s smile almost covering his face helps to convey how important this moment is to both Willie and Jake. Willie is delighted to be asked to be Jake’s partner in the science fair, and Jake not only notices his happiness but also makes sure to record it as part of his story. This helps to stress the importance of loyalty to friends.

“You know how people say ‘two heads are better than one’? Well, it’s true, especially if the other head is Willie’s head.”

Jake has learned an important lesson about the self-centered attitude of know-it-alls and the importance of staying humble. As he works with Willie, he realizes that his friend has many good ideas about the electromagnet project and sees that there are benefits to working with a partner beyond just making them feel good about being included. He realizes that Willie’s help is valuable—a thing he did not believe was possible when he was caught up in being a know-it-all earlier in the text.

“It had been an afternoon of pure fun. Which is what science is supposed to be in the first place, right?”

The change in Jake’s feelings about working on his project once Willie is involved takes place because Willie’s light-hearted approach takes Jake’s mind off of Marsha, Kevin, and the Bluntium Twelve. Instead of focusing on the reward of winning the computer and defeating his rivals, Jake spends the day focused on the actual activity of learning about electromagnets. This shift in his attitude is an important part of the text’s arguments about learning as its own reward.

“Pete had started his project back in October. […] He wasn’t doing the project to try to be better or smarter than anybody else. And he didn’t do it to try to win a new computer. He did it because he really wanted to figure something out.”

Jake’s explanation of what is great about Pete’s project shows that he understands learning as its own reward. It also helps to support the story’s theme of the importance of staying humble because Jake is able to appreciate why Pete’s work is better than his own without resentment. This moment demonstrates that Jake really has given up his brief attempt to be a know-it-all and has recovered his moral integrity.