42 pages • 1 hour read
Gary D. SchmidtOrbiting Jupiter
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 Summary
Eastham Middle’s gym teacher, Coach Swieteck, takes a liking to Joseph because he has impressive athletic skills. Coach has no legs due to a war injury, but he and Joseph share a competitive spirit. The school’s math teacher, Mr. D’Ulney, also begins to think fondly of Joseph; when Jack and Joseph are bored during their daily Office Duty period, Mr. D’Ulney brings Joseph difficult math theorems to prove. Mr. Canton asks the teacher to stop distracting the boys from their office work, and after this exchange, Joseph starts eating lunch with Mr. D’Ulney.
Joseph’s father, Mr. Brook, arrives unannounced at the Hurd farm. His presence upsets the cows. Mr. Brook is upset that Mr. Hurd has Joseph doing chores. Mr. Hurd asks Mr. Brook to leave several times, and Mr. Brook leaves before the confrontation turns physical.
As the winter weather turns colder, Joseph and Jack fall into a new routine, and Joseph milks Rosie every day. The boys continue to walk to school. When the Alliance River freezes over, Joseph decides to walk out onto the ice. Jack pleads with him to come back to the bank, but Joseph steps closer to the unsolid middle. Jack screams the name “Maddie,” which he sometimes hears Joseph saying in his sleep. As Jack repeats the name, Joseph walks back toward the bank. Jack recalls seeing a dog drown in the same river when he was six years old. Jack and his mother were unable to save the animal, which slipped under the ice and never resurfaced. Jack “dreamed about me being that dog, and the cold water under the ice […] dragging at me” (38).
As Joseph walks toward the bank, Joseph falls into the ice up to his shoulders. Jack braves his fear, and he empties his backpack and tosses one end of the bag toward Joseph for Joseph to hold. As Jack pulls Joseph back to shore, Jack breaks through the ice up to his knees. Jack saves Joseph just as Mr. Canton arrives in his car. Frustrated, Mr. Canton drives the boys back to the farm. Mrs. Hurd helps them dry off and warm up with blankets and hot chocolate. Mr. Hurd lectures Jack about safety, but Jack does not hear what Mr. Hurd says to Joseph.
As they prepare to sleep that night, Jack notices a scar on Joseph’s side: “The white line dragged down from under his right arm, then jagged along his whole side and into his sweatpants” (45). This is the first physical representation of Joseph’s trauma. Joseph reassures Jack that he will avoid trouble, and he also asks Jack not to say the name “Maddie” again. Before he falls asleep, Joseph tells Jack that he went out onto the ice because “Maddie liked to skate” (47).
Chapter 2 Analysis
In contrast to the first chapter, the second chapter begins with Jack’s list of teachers who have become supportive of Joseph. Throughout the novel, Joseph’s network of support grows larger as the adults in their world recognize Joseph’s strengths, strengths Joseph himself does not recognize. Coach Swieteck and Mr. D’Ulney demonstrate to Joseph that he has talent, and except for the Hurds, these teachers are the first adults in Joseph’s life who offer him support and positive attention.
The arrival of Mr. Brook contrasts with the many instances of positive regard Joseph enjoys from his teachers. Mr. Brook’s role as an antagonist is illustrated by the reaction of the cows to his presence. According to Jack, “you can tell a whole lot about someone from the way cows are around him” (32). The cows’ disapproval of Mr. Brook alerts Jack to Mr. Brook’s corrupt nature and gives Mr. Hurd the opportunity to prove himself as an ally of Joseph’s, events that foreshadow the novel’s climax and other incidents later in the novel.
Weather becomes an increasingly important theme in this chapter. Orbiting Jupiter is set in the cold winter months, which reflects Joseph’s emotional emptiness. The landscape around the boys is “only white. The ground, the trees, the clapboard of the church, sky. Even the Alliance was frozen white” (34). These images of desolation suggest the emotional desolation within Joseph. The winter setting also provides an important piece of foreshadowing. The frozen river becomes analogous to death when Jack recalls seeing the dog drown under the ice as a child, and the dog’s death foreshadows Joseph’s death.
The incident on the river is also critical to the development of the relationship between Jack and Joseph. Joseph reveals the defiant side of his character when the driver of a passing car berates Joseph and he “started to jump up and down” (36) in response to the warning. When Joseph’s defiance gets him into trouble, Jack rescues him. This scene demonstrates the growth of trust between the boys. Joseph’s defiance stems from mistrust of others, which makes the scene pivotal to the reader’s understanding of his growth.
More mysteries around Joseph’s past arise in this chapter. Jack sees Joseph’s scar clearly for the first time, but he does not know what happened to cause the scar. Similarly, Jack calls out the name Joseph says in his sleep to lure Joseph off the ice without knowing what role Maddie played in Joseph’s life previously. Along with the reader, Jack becomes more aware of Joseph’s deep trauma, and as Jack’s curiosity grows, so does the reader’s.
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By Gary D. Schmidt
